White Striped Nightmare
by Animation Universe 2005
Summary: Max's enthusiasm for Halloween goes above and beyond, but a simple costume choice triggered Tigress' fear and ends up re-opening old rivalry. The end result; nightmares for Tigress with different monstrous versions of Max! Happy Halloween!
1. Halloween Enthusiasm

I'm BACK! Since it's Halloween, I thought it was fitting to have a Kung Fu Panda Halloween fic that involves Max. Since he is getting a little older and his Halloween enthusiasm has hit a huge skyrocket. But...a little banter between him and Tigress resurfaces once again and what happens next...let's just say Max is giving Tigress the Halloween spirit. You'll see what I mean. Enjoy!

* * *

White Striped Nightmare

by: Terrell James

Chapter 1: Halloween Enthusiasm

It's only a few days left until Halloween night comes upon the Valley of Peace and everyone is extremely excited about this holiday to come around. Wind blowing leaves through the ground, pumpkin carvings with jack-o-lanterns and all the kids running around with so much jubilee over the holiday. The same goes for the Bushido-Akio's house as they gather themselves around, setting up the house for some halloween excitement and some of the kids are getting into the spirit; mainly Max, Duke, Bakari and Isaiah. But Max is the one that's completely stoked up about Halloween the most because he likes things that are spooky and ancient and Isaiah comes up to him and asked, "You're excited about Halloween?"

Max looks at Isaiah with a face full of excitement and joy that looks as if it couldn't be contained and he said, "Excited? I'm completely happy for this day to come. Halloween is like the best holiday ever; with trick or treating, getting into costume and going to the Jade Palace Halloween party. How could it be less awesome?"

Isaiah chuckled at this and could tell from his brother's excitement that this holiday obviously gets Max happy and it shows and he smiled back and said, "I'm excited too."

"What are you gonna be this year?" asked Max.

"Um...I'll probably be a samurai. Just run around the neighborhood like a super-secret samurai and ask them for candy or they'll feel my wrath." Isaiah replied, making his best samurai moves.

Max looks at those samurai moves that Isaiah made and he smiled at this and said, "I know I'd give you candy if you made that move."

"Yeah, you don't want to mess with this. What about you? Since you're so excited about Halloween, what are you gonna be?" asked Isaiah.

Max gave it some thought about who he wants to be for Halloween until finally...he snaps his fingers and said, "A clown! I've always wanted to dress up as a clown, but not just any clown. A very scary clown."

"Wow...a scary clown. That would definitely be a radical costume." Isaiah said, smiling.

Max nodded his head at this and agreed with it and said, "Yep. Musaki told me that there's a clown costume with some makeup to make it more scarier and freakier, but to keep the fun of one."

As Isaiah is enthusiastic about Max's choice of being who he wants to be for Halloween, a little thought had come into the foreplay when it came to being invited to the Jade Palace Halloween Party in regards to one certain kung-fu master who has a deep opposition of clowns and asked, "Doesn't Tigress hate clowns?"

"Oh, yeah...I forgot about that. Well...maybe she won't notice that I'm gonna be a clown this year." Max added.

Just then, Samurai and Phoenix come downstairs to get themselves a snack and as they opened up the cabinets, they were alarmed to find a fake dead zombie's head in there and when it fell down, they picked it up and figured that it was fake with a note that read 'Wimps!'. Only one person knew how to do everything they can to scare them and they both said, "Sage..."

"Why can't this guy stop scaring the crap out of us?" Samurai asked, growling in frustration.

"It's like he wants us to pee our pants." Phoenix agreed, with a hint of annoyance.

"And I thought that Tsunami's Halloween pranks are the worst." Samurai added.

Just then, Max and Isaiah walked to the kitchen, apparently overhearing the screams and Isaiah asked, "What happened? We heard someone scream?"

"It's okay, guys. It was just one of Sage's stupid tricks." Phoenix answered.

Max could tell it was all Sage's doing based on that fake looking mask that seems like the real thing and asked, "He got you guys too, huh?"

"Yeah, he did. Wait, what do you mean 'got you guys too'?" asked Samurai, apparently very puzzled.

"He pulled a prank on us in the bathroom this morning. I was gonna pee, but then I saw some green monster popping out of the toilet and because of Sage, I got pee in my underwear." Isaiah replied.

Samurai and Phoenix snickered at that without Isaiah listening or knowing, but Isaiah could hear it superclear, which made him annoyed and embarrassed at the same time while glaring at them for a second and after Samurai and Phoenix looked at him, they stopped for a second and Isaiah said, "Really, guys? It's not really that funny."

"I'm sorry. It's just that you were gonna pee and then instead...you peed yourself." Phoenix said.

"You think that was stupid? Try waking up to having a pair of Sage's dirty underwear on your face. It smells like someone just haven't showered in 12,000 years." Max replied.

Samurai sighed at this and he said, "Something has to be done."

Just then, they see a very cocky Sage with just his shirt and underwear walking through the kitchen, looking at his victims with a smirk and said, "So...how'd you enjoy your Halloween presents?"

"Not by an inch." Phoenix replied.

Sage scoffs at this and expected this reaction and he said, "Good. And by the way...I put some stink bomb in Luna's room and I'm gonna put the blame on your four."

"You what?!" Samurai asked, very shocked.

Sage looked at them with a very cocky smile as he hears the stink bomb going off and Luna was shrieking from a distance, much to Sage's delight and he said, "Music to my hears."

"SAGE! I'M GONNA KILL YOU!" Luna screamed.

"It wasn't me!" Sage said, innocently.

"Oh, I know it's you! You got your name on your stupid bomb!" Luna shrieked, from a distance.

Soon, Sage's cocky smirk lowered to a shocked expression as to how his name was still there and Samurai smirked back and said, "Looks like your blame game got foiled."

"Shut up." Sage growled.

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That's just the beginning! Stay tuned!


	2. Meeting Up with Half of the Masters

We get to see Max meeting up with half of the masters as his enthusiasm with Halloween spreads!

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Chapter 2: Meeting Up with Half of the Masters

As the day goes on, Samurai took Max over to the noodle shop so that both of them can meet up with the Jade Palace masters plus Arizona's gonna take Max over to the costume shop to try on a few costumes and as they were gonna make it there, in comes Max's dragon buddy, Blaze coming by to follow him and Max turns around and sees Blaze coming in and he waved to him as Blaze makes his way towards both Max and Samurai. With a gleeful reunion, Blaze exclaimed, "Stripe-Dude! How goes?"

"Blaze Fire! What up?" asked Max, very happy.

Both of them did their signature fist-bump, handshake and high-five/down low gesture as a greeting and they ended with an fist-release explosion sound and said their signature friendship catchphrase, "Boonzao!"

Samurai chuckled at that particular catchphrase and responded, "I can never understand what that means."

"Me neither, but who cares? We just love saying it." Blaze replied.

Samurai nods at that and asked, "How ya been, Blaze?"

"Never been better. Just excited about Halloween." Blaze answered.

That completely surprised Max the most as Blaze is the most excited about Halloween as well and he said, "Oh, this is gonna be amazing! Defintely gonna be the best Halloween in the history of ever!"

"Straight up, dude!" Blaze exclaimed.

Samurai looked at both of them and asked them, "Keep the hype down low, please."

Just then, they made it to Mr. Ping's Noodle Shop and they see Monkey, Mantis, Po, Crane and Tigress sitting there on one table and Samurai waves to them as some of them waved back as they went to the table and Samurai said, "Hey, guys. How's it going?"

"Pretty well. We were just waiting for Max." Monkey answered.

Samurai chuckled softly at that and he brought not only Max but Blaze in as well and he said, "Well, you get two for one. Can you guys keep him around for the day while I work and set up Halloween decorations here?"

"Sure thing. Things are always interesting when Max and the dragon kid are here. But...mostly just Max." Mantis answered.

"Appreciate it. I gotta get going before Mr. Ping whacks me with a spoon...again." Samurai said, very quickly.

"Been there, Sam." Po called out.

As Samurai gets himself ready to start his work, Max sat between Monkey and Po as Blaze sat between Crane and Tigress for a little while and already, Blaze's prescence made Tigress a little uncomfortable as she still barely gets used to the idea of a dragon being friends with a tiger cub. Max looks some of them and asked, "Where's Viper?"

"Viper had to stick around to help out with a few decorations with the Elemental Hazards. She's in charge of them." Mantis answered.

Crane couldn't help but be a little surprised that Max is getting a little older now and ever since he had turned 11, he looked at him differently from the shy kid they met from age 6 to now a fully, optimistic and very friendly individual with wisdom and an open heart and can only go so far to become a great person. Crane clears his throat and said, "So...Max. Have you figured out what you're gonna be for Halloween this year?"

Max became a little coy about what he wants to be for Halloween and looks around the table to some anticipated faces just waiting for Max to respond. Tigress' face was a mixture of anticipation and a 'you better make it fast, kid' look because she's not really a fan of waiting and he said, "I could, but I don't think I'm gonna give any details. I will say though...it's something you'd never expect."

Po realizes that it might be a surprise for the others to see and wouldn't reveal much until the time comes and he said, "Keeping it a secret...gotcha."

"Why not just tell us now?" asked Tigress.

"Well, what fun would that be if I spoiled the surprise? It's kinda my thing now." Max answered.

"What are you guys gonna be for Halloween?" asked Blaze.

"We haven't fully decided yet, but Po knows he wants to be a secret samurai for Halloween." Mantis answered.

"You know, my brother Isaiah's gonna dress as a samurai too. You guys can be samurai's for trick-to-treating." Max added.

That fueled up Po's excitement as well to know that him and Isaiah are gonna dress up as samurais for Halloween and said, "Man, this is gonna be a fun Halloween!"

Po's excitement sorta got on Tigress' nerves a little bit and she looked at Max and asked, "Aren't you too old for trick-or-treating?"

"Not really. I'm 11 years old now. So, I've got two years left...although this might be my last time trick-or-treating at the Valley of Peace because we're gonna move to Shanghai Secluded Valley in a year from now." Max answered.

"Oh...that's right." the masters stated, almost forgetting that Musaki's gonna move out of there by age 21.

"How is Musaki doing, by the way?" asked Crane.

"He's doing great. Him, Summer, Luke, Noah and Sakamoto II are doing great as well." Max replied.

Blaze was a little surprised that Max is gonna leave the Valley of Peace in a year from now and asked, "How come you're gonna move out of there?"

"Well...my cousin Musaki has lived here since he was three and originally, he was gonna live in the Jade Palace until he's 21, but checked out early at 18 because he wanted to be closer to his cousins and uncle that he had found back when he was 15. And since he had gotten to know more about his ancestors at Shanghai Secluded Valley, that's where he wants to spend the rest of his life there starting after his 21st birthday." Max explained.

"So...does that mean I won't see you anymore?" asked Blaze.

"No, Blaze. You can come with us." Max added, reassuring his dragon friend.

That made Blaze very hopeful about this and he definitely sees Max as the very first friend he's had before and since then and Po said, "Man, we'll all miss you, buddy."

"I know, but we should just enjoy the time we have left until the day actually comes." Max said, with a reassuring smile.

Monkey chuckled at this and he rubbed Max's head very playfully and said, "Always one to make us smile. That's what we like about you."

* * *

Next up...we catch up with the Hazards!


	3. Decorating

Now we see the Hazards at work...decorating the Hall of Heroes with Halloween!

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Chapter 3: Decorating

At the Jade Palace, Viper is supervising the Elemental Hazards to make sure they're doing what they're supposed to do as they get the decorations set up for the Halloween party. Kaizer and Hope looked on as they assist in some parts while the rest of them handle putting the decorations; ranging from fake spiderwebs, candles, pumpkins, statues of mummies, vampires, ghosts and other Halloween decorations that can appear for the festivities. Viper had assigned members of the Hazards to partner up for each task; Takami and Layla were in charge of decorating the cobwebs, Ryo and Kiba in charge of the pumpkins, Faith and Skyler in charge of candles, statues and various assignments.

Of all of the members that are stoked about Halloween, Kiba's the most excited and energetic about the holiday because it serves as a huge favorite for him and while he was getting the pumpkins, he couldn't resist getting one of the fake pumpkins and puts it over his head with the mischievous intent to scare Ryo and he silently creeps up behind Ryo and made spooky noises while wriggling his fingers. Much to Ryo's annoyance, he sighed exasperatedly, turns around and sees the pumpkinhead and isn't all that freaked out about it and said, "Very funny, Kiba."

Kiba was actually very shocked to hear that Ryo knows it's him under that mask and asked, "Aw! How did you even know it was me?"

"I've known you when you first came in the Jade Palace when you pranked me for three years. Most of which were Halloween based and I know that if you're trying to scare me, chances are it's not happening." Ryo answered.

Kiba took the pumpkin off of his head and replied, "I'm gonna try my best to do so though."

"Aren't you too old for pranks?" asked Ryo, folding his arms.

"Nope. You're never too old to prank anyone, especially on Halloween." Kiba replied.

Meanwhile, Takami and Layla were putting some fake cobwebs around parts of the palace and as they set them up, Layla had an idea to place those webs through the wall and she looks at Takami and asked, "Hey, Kami. Think you can throw the webs?"

Takami seemed very confused and surprised that Layla would ask him that question and he wasn't sure where she's going with this and she gives out a nod to assure his trust. Takami sighed in response and threw it and Layla used her wind powers and blew them all over the entire palace, making it all spooky and creepy. Takami was shocked to see that this was done so quickly and that it looked like an actual haunted house and walked around to see all of this was set together. He took one look at Layla and with a smile on her face, he smiled back as well and said, "You're amazing."

"Told you to trust me." Layla said, with a smile.

"I always do, don't I?" asked Takami.

"Yo, lovebirds! If you're done attempting to suck faces, help Ryo and Kiba with the pumpkins, please." Kaizer stated.

Both of them went to Ryo and Kiba and helped out more on the pumpkins while Faith and Skyler brought in every single funky halloween item to bring around the Hall of Warriors and they set them up through the entire hall as Hope and Kaizer keep a close eye, but mostly it's just Kaizer keep an eye on everything to make sure nothing goes amiss.

Hope thought about using the opportunity to ask Kaizer a little question that seems to be the most pressing question that Kaizer tends to avoid when it comes to his personal business and asked, "So, Kaizer...have you thought about inviting Felicity to the party?"

Once Kaizer heard what Hope just mentioned, he knew that this was something that he didn't want to answer due to his unconfirmed relationship with her and he turned to Hope and asked, "And if I am?"

"Come on, Kai. You know you have a crush on Felicity when you first came to the Valley of Peace." Hope said, very teasingly.

Kaizer could feel a little bit annoyed by Hope asking him about Felicity and speculating about their relationship and just sighed and said, "Felicity and I are just friends. Didn't we just put that nail in the coffin?"

"It was never in the coffin, bro. You know it and I definitely know it. You just don't see it yet, but later on...it will." Hope said, with a sly chuckle.

"Boys..." Viper said, with a sweet, yet stern voice.

Kaizer and Hope turned around and saw Viper coming in the room, looking at them and Viper said to them, "Invitation list?"

"Oh, yeah. I got it right here." Hope said, pulling in the invite list.

"Okay, so of course...we have all of the kung-fu masters coming in and then the Bushido-Akio family are coming as well." Viper said, looking at the list.

"They come here every year, right?" asked Kaizer.

"Yep, especially Maximus." Viper replied.

"Did someone say Maximus?"

All three turned around and see Layla come by, apparently had her ears perked when she heard one of them mention Max and she seemed very excited about him coming by the palace and Hope replied, "Yeah, Max is coming. Why?"

"I haven't seen him in a while since his birthday. He's gotten older, hasn't he?" asked Layla.

"Yeah, he turned 11 a few months ago." Viper replied.

The fact that Max is 11 years old made her jaw drop in shock that Max is getting a little older and part of her couldn't believe that he's growing up because she still sees him as the little cub that he refers to as his mother or sister as he got to know her well. She blinks her eyes and responded, "Wow...he's growing up so fast."

"Yeah, I know. The Valley of Peace and the Jade Palace won't be the same without him when he leaves next year with his family." Hope added.

Layla had almost forgotten that Max is moving away soon and it mader her a little sad that he's going and she said, "Oh..."

"But don't worry. Max promised that he'll write letters to us when he moves to Shanghai Secluded Valley, but we got an entire year left until then. By that time, he'll be 12." Viper added.

Kaizer looks up at Kiba as they put up the pumpkins and recognizes the fact that Kiba and Max have a huge close brotherly-like relationship between the two of them and witnessed them being so inseparable that it might be hard for Kiba to adjust by next year and he said, "Kiba's gonna take this really hard."

"Yeah, I know. By the way, is he coming here today?" asked Hope.

"Yeah, he's with the rest of the masters to get some costumes for the party. Wonder what Max is gonna be this year?" asked Viper.

"Looks like we'll have to see." Kaizer answered.

Soon enough, Shifu comes over to the Hall of Heroes, apparently annoyed with a little fake spider hanging around his face as he walked towards Kiba and throws the spider at the table and told Kiba, "Next time...do not put a fake spider on my robe."

"Did you like your prank?" asked Kiba.

Shifu lowered his brow in sheer annoyance at Kiba and responded, "Not a bit. I grow tired of your hijinks every year."

"Join the club." Ryo muttered in agreement.

* * *

Same old Hazards...always up for anything. Stay tuned as we check in on Max and crew!


	4. Halloween Excitement

Max's Halloween enthusiasm has spread, but his costume choice is still secretive!

* * *

Chapter 4: Halloween Excitement

Back at the noodle shop, Po, Crane, Monkey, Mantis and Tigress are still hanging with Max and Blaze, just enjoying their lunch before they go out and pick out some costumes to wear for the Halloween gathering at the Jade Palace. So far, Blaze and Max have been talking about how excited they are with Halloween underway and how it's their favorite holiday. The enthusiasticness of Halloween seem to cause a greater deal of annoyance from Tigress as she keeps hearing Max blab about how happy he's looking forward to on Halloween night and is having second thoughts about her friendship with Max and questions herself about giving Max a chance to be a good friend.

She gave Max these annoyed glares at him as he's talking and right away, Monkey looked up and thought that she was staring at him, but instead...he took one look at Max and completely realized that she's staring at him with that annoyed look. But he knew better to interfere because it would make a bad move if she gets into that state, but he knows that some tension might come back up again.

"...and my costume is gonna be the coolest thing ever. I think it'll take everyone by surprise." Max said, happily.

"You sure you don't want us to know what it is?" asked Mantis.

Max became a little bit coy and just made this very innocent, mischievous yet coy look after he heard Mantis' question and replied, "Very sure. I'll let you guys see it when we look for some costumes."

"Why keep us in the dark, Max?" asked Tigress.

Everyone looked up at her and Max could sense that her old self might've been re-ignited and hopes that it doesn't lead to a rivalry again because he had to deal with it since he was 7 and they've just gotten to be friends, but he keeps it cool and replied, "Some things are better left as a surprise."

"If he wants to tell you about it, he will when he's ready." Crane stated.

Just then, Samurai comes in with a couple of bowls of noodles and brought it to their table and as they do so, Po just couldn't resist eating some of them, which catches Samurai's attention and he said, "Just couldn't wait, could you?"

Po rose his head up with some pieces of noodles on his face and some on his neck fat and some of the juices were dripping down and replied, "Yes..."

Samurai sighed as he rolled his eyes with amusement and said, "I'm definitely gonna miss you the most next year."

"So...how's Mr. Ping treating you?" asked Crane.

"Pretty cool. He's an awesome boss...except when he whacks you with a spoon a lot." Samurai added.

Po could identify the feeling and replied, "At least you don't live there. You just have to do whatever he says."

"Yeah, that's true. Enjoy your food, guys." Samurai said, walks off.

Everyone enjoyed the noodles and as Blaze took his very first sip of noodles, he was enamored by the taste and it's like nothing he's ever tasted before in his life and he said, "My taste buds are waking me up."

"They're really good on the first taste." Mantis added.

"I can tell. If you had told me that this would taste awesome, I could've lived here years ago." Blaze added.

Max chuckled and agreed with that notion and he said, "It just doesn't get any better than this."

After everyone had their lunch, they see Arizona come in with Jacob and they greeted them as Max comes over to Arizona and hugs his waist and Arizona tried to hug Max back while holding onto his son at the same time. Arizona then looks up at Max and said, "Hey, bro. How goes?"

"Hey, Arizona. Hi, Jakey!" Max said, looking at both of them.

Jake was staring at Max and grabbed his finger a little and Max just smiled while bonding with his nephew and said, "He's so cute."

"Yeah, I know. You guys wanna head to the costume shop?" asked Arizona.

"Yeah!" everyone exclaimed.

* * *

Next up...we see Max's costume choice revealed!


	5. The Costume Reveal

And now...we see Max's costume revealed! And Tigress' reaction...just watch.

* * *

Chapter 5: The Costume Reveal

After lunch, Arizona takes Max and Blaze while Po, Tigress, Crane, Monkey and Mantis followed suit to find some costumes for the gathering and as they entered in the costume shop, Max got more excited to see the array of costumes that may pique his interest to the next level. Just then, Max spots some of his friends from the MMA class; a 12-year old male snow leopard, a 10-year old male lion cub and an 11-year old female mountain lion walking around a couple of sections and walks over to meet them and as the friends looked up and saw Max, they were happy to see them. Max motioned Blaze over to meet them and when he does, they were amazed that they saw a dragon coming in.

"Hey, guys. How's it going?" asked Max, walking alongside Blaze.

"Whoa..." everyone exclaimed when they first saw Blaze for the first time.

Blaze seemed a little bit nervous about meeting some of Max's friends because he had thought that this is the first time they saw a dragon that it would scare them away like in stories and fables, but Max reassured both of them that Blaze is cool and that he's not like other dragons in stories and he said to them, "Blaze, these are my friends; Jinshin, Akaro and Li-Yin. Guys, this is Blaze."

"Hi." Blaze said, nervously waving.

"Hello." Akaro replied.

Li-Yin seemed very amazed that she is seeing a dragon for the first time and she seemed really into him a little bit and asked, "You're really a dragon?"

"Yeah, why aren't I?" asked Blaze.

"You're not like the other dragons in stories we've heard. We always thought they'd be bigger and meaner." Li-Yin answered.

Blaze chuckled at that notion and responded, "Just barely."

Jinshin comes over to Max and asked, "You here to check out some costumes?"

Max nodded his head in agreement and Jinshin could tell that Max is completely looking forward to Halloween and he responded, "Me and some of my friends are."

Jinshin looks up and sees Arizona, Po, Tigress, Crane, Mantis and Monkey from a further distance and got completely stoked to see the latter parts walking around and he turns to Max and asked, "Are those the Jade Palace masters?"

"Yep, that's them." Max replied.

"Oh my gosh...here in this costume shop. Who would've known?" Jinshin said, completely enthusiastic.

Arizona comes by and sees Max and Blaze in one section and walks over to them and said, "Hey, guys. I see you saw some of your friends from MMA."

"Yeah, you remember Jinshin, Li-Yin and Akaro." Max said, looking at them.

Two of the three were waving to Arizona as Arizona waved back at them and explained to the crew that Max is gonna try out some costumes and as Max and Blaze walked out, they didn't forget to say bye to them, but decided to see what Max is gonna be for Halloween. Max, Arizona, Jacob and Blaze walk around the sections of the costumes to see which ones would fit them. Just as Max walks around to find the perfect costume, he looks around and sees mounds of them; ranging from samurai to dragon, pumpkin, skeleton, zombie and vampire.

Max is having a hard time finding the most awesomest costume that stands out amongst the rest and he knew what he wanted to get; something scary, freaky and completely insane but still keeping the spirit of Halloween. Just when it seems like it took forever, Max stumbles across this one costume that literally gave him a scare...and it was a killer vampire-zombie clown costume. The minute Max took one look at it, he was amazed by the texture of the costume and how insanely creepy it looks and knew that this is just the one he's been eyeing on.

Max gasped silently and whispered, "This is it..."

Arizona looks up and sees Max standing in front of this one costume that completely stood out for him and asked, "You like this one?"

"This is exactly what I've been looking for. It definitely fits me." Max answered.

Blaze comes over and sees the costume that Max is looking at and it looked like the type of costume that would give him nightmares just by one glance and he asked, "So...that's the costume?"

"Yep. It definitely fits my excitement for Halloween." Max replied.

"It even comes with either a mask or make-up." Arizona said, pointing out the other stuff.

"Sweet." Max said, happily.

* * *

Meanwhile

Some of the masters were trying out their costumes to see if they could fit them and how it would work for the party and just then, Samurai, Phoenix and Tsunami came over to the costume shop to see what's going on and how everyone is doing. Blaze and Tigress were the only ones standing by, waiting to see what the outcome of the costumes can be. Phoenix came by towards Blaze and asked, "How's everything?"

"Pretty awesome." Blaze answered.

"We're all just waiting to see if the costumes they have may fit them and what it looks like on them." Tigress answered.

Samurai noticed that Tigress is the only one not in a costume and seemed a little curious as to why and asked, "How come you're not wearing a costume?"

"This is my costume." Tigress answered.

Samurai looked around her and saw that her so-called 'costume' is the same outfit she's been wearing everyday and blinked his eyes for a second, hoping that this is a joke. But then she knew that Tigress doesn't exactly joke and he said, "You just like to kill other people's joy, don't you?"

"I'm just not interested in dressing up." Tigress replied.

"I'm not convinced." Tsunami muttered.

After a few minutes, Samurai, Tsunami, Phoenix, Blaze and Tigress were waiting for some of them come out and see what the others' costumes look like and the first one to come out was Monkey, donning a very amazing wizard costume. Blaze, Samurai, Phoenix and Tsunami became awestruck with that wizard costume Monkey got and Tsunami said, "Man, that is definitely you."

"Yep. I think I fit into the whole wizardry trickster mode." Monkey added, stroking his fake wizard beard.

"Looks good, dude." Samurai answered.

"We likey." Phoenix and Blaze added.

Next up was Mantis who came out with a wizard cape fitting his size and some fake beard as well and hops on Monkey's shoulder and said, "And I am his assistant."

Monkey looks down and sees Mantis from the side and he said, "Looking good."

"Thanks. You look good yourself." Mantis added.

Seconds afterwards, Crane comes out with a warrior guard costume that speaks warrior guard and of those costumes, that actually got Tigress interested the most. Phoenix, Samurai, Tsunami, Mantis, Blaze and Monkey were amazed by that costume and Crane asked, "This kinda looks weird."

"No. It doesn't look weird at all. It looks very ancient and fantastic. You'd fit right in." Tigress stated.

"Thanks...I think." Crane added.

"Hey, guys! Check out my costume!"

They all turned around and saw Po come out with a samurai costume, equipped with a mask, plastic sais and a belt to go along with it and made some kung-fu moves to go along with it and just showed off to everyone before accidentally slipping to the ground, but still keep his cool. Po takes off the samurai mask and asked, "What do you think?"

"I think you look foolish." Tigress answered.

Samurai scoffs at Tigress' response to that and he said, "I strongly disagree. He looks awesome. He could come out as legendary king and he'd still look awesome."

"Yeah, you judge too much." Phoenix replied.

Tigress folded her arms at this as she couldn't get why Phoenix and Samurai are accepting this, but grows shocked when Mantis, Monkey and Crane are accepting Po's costume and she just sighed exasperatedly and sat back down, completely excluding herself from all of this enthusiasm and said to herself, "This could not get any more annoying."

Arizona popped his head on one of the dressing rooms and said, "Okay, guys...it took a long time to get Max's costume ready, but he's ready for a test run."

Everyone sat down quickly to see what Max's costume is gonna be after Max teased about what he's gonna be for Halloween this year and as Arizona opened the door and came out, the anticipation is killing them to see what it will be. Not long afterwards, Jinshin, Li-Yin and Akaro appeared out of nowhere and walked towards the dressing room when they see Max come out of the room with his costume.

Max comes out with his zombie/vampire clown with killer clown blood makeup and a frightening yet playful evil mask that could look like it could suck your entire soul and give you nightmares by just one look and holds a rubber knife on the clutches to go along with it. All of the others were spooked and impressed...except for Tigress, as she could not believe that of all the costume choices Max could think of and tease them with, she was appalled that Max could go with a clown costume.

Max took off his mask and revealed his face and asked, "What do you guys think?"

"This is the one costume that you were waiting to tell us?" asked Samurai, obviously surprised.

"Yep. I'm gonna be a clown this Halloween. Not just any clown, but a scary, creepy and very insane clown. I didn't want to tell anyone else because I want it to be a surprise for when I go out trick-or-treating." Max answered.

"You look so awesome, Max! It was definitely worth the wait!" Po said, excitedly.

Tigress couldn't get over the fact that Max is wearing a clown costume and to her, she thinks his makeup looks like someone had left some murder claws in his face and she had a very bad experience with clowns and has a deep hatred of them in any shape of form, including in a costume. And for Max to wear that costume reignited the flaming hatred of clowns and feels as if it's an act of disrespect and betrayal and it made her crazy.

"Tigress, isn't this the coolest costume you've ever seen? This could definitely be the best one this Halloween." Max said, excitedly.

"Hey, maybe you can wear it at the Halloween party at the palace!" Monkey exclaimed.

And that did it. Tigress had completely lost it and went back to her old habits involving Max and she exclaimed, "NO! Max is not going to wear this ugly, pathetic clown costume at our palace! You know that I hate clowns!"

Tigress' reaction definitely stunned everyone and it also caught some attention from people at the store and Samurai knew where this was going because he knew that reaction all too well when it involves her and Max and just face-palmed himself, muttering, "Here we go again..."

Max was a little surprised that Tigress was completely against this costume and asked, "You don't like it?"

"I hate it! Look at you, you look like something out of a horror story that I hate to listen to and the make-up? What is wrong with you?! If you think you're gonna wear this to the palace at our party, you've got another thing coming! We're gonna put you all off the guest list! Just for this, Max is uninvited to the Halloween party at the palace! You've disrespected me in the worst way and I don't ever want to see you in this party and in the palace! You and your family are permanently banned from the Jade Palace for life! And I'm gonna be so happy that you leave the Valley of Peace next year and I'm not gonna miss you at all! I'll be so glad that you're gone for good! I HATE YOU FOR WHAT YOU JUST DID TO ME AND I HATE YOU FOR EVERYTHING ABOUT YOU! You make so so sick that I wish someone could send your tail back to the orphanage for life and that no one will ever adopt you! Just because you're 11 years old doesn't mean you have to participate in kiddie stuff! You know what? I was stupid to be friends with you based on this one costume you got on! Don't visit, don't talk to me, don't come here to train! JUST STAY THE HELL OUT OF OUR LIVES! STAY OUT OF MY LIFE or I swear I will hurt you so bad, you won't live to be 12 years old!" Tigress shouted, at the top of her lungs and stormed off of the costume shop.

That left Max a little bit confused, but somewhat hurt that because of this costume, the friendship that he was gonna have with Max had just ended abruptly...and he doesn't know why. Max sighed heavily at what just happened and walks over to the rest of the gang, visibly upset that this fallout had come in so fast, especially on a holiday like this.

Jinshin slowly walked over to Max and said, "I like your costume."

"Me too." Lin-Yi responded as well.

Akaro walked over to Max and the young lion cub was a little shocked that Tigress acted this way in front of many people and said to Max, "You look awesome in every way possible."

Soon enough, Po and half of the crew rallied around Max for support and Po reached out to him and said, "Don't worry about what Tigress said. You look awesome in it."

"Yeah. Tigress does hate clowns though, but I'm sure she didn't mean to take it out on you." Crane stated.

For Max, he knew that this is one costume that he loved the most and to him, it didn't really matter what anyone else thought of him or what he's wearing for Halloween and he said, "I like this costume. I mean...I didn't do this to scare Tigress. I picked this costume because I like it and no matter what anyone says, I love what I picked out. It's Halloween. I can pick out whatever I want."

"There you go!" Monkey exclaimed.

"Are we really off the party?" asked Phoenix.

"Not entirely."

Everyone turns around and sees Shifu standing there and it stands to reason that he might've overheard the entire outburst without anyone knowing and he walks up to Max and he said, "Tigress doesn't really like clowns a lot. Now, I know you never did anything to offend her just now. But you and your family are not banned for this party nor the Jade Palace. Don't you worry, I'll straighten it out with her."

"I'm coming with you. I got some pretty choice words for her that I've been wanting to say for so long." Samurai agreed.

"You can definitely come to the party with your costume, Max. You can be who you're gonna be. We will never judge you." Shifu added.

Those words literally boosted Max up and he already knew that he doesn't care what other people think or say about him because he's very confident in himself and that no one else can take that away from him and he said, "Thanks, Shifu."

"You're welcome." Shifu replied.

"So...how do I look, Shifu?" asked Po, showing off his samurai costume while sucking in his gut, but his stomach ends up bouncing.

Shifu looked at Po for a minute and he responded, "Panda...you don't want to know what I think."

* * *

Insane reaction, huh? Stay tuned to see what happens next!


	6. Fallout Spilling

The aftermath of what transpired Tigress' fury for Max!

* * *

Chapter 6: Fallout Spilling

Back at the Jade Palace, the Hazards and Viper looked at all of the amazing decorations for the entire Halloween party and they pride themselves into what they've just accomplished and Viper looks at this and said, "Good work, guys. This definitely looks like an actual haunted house."

"Thanks, Viper." the Hazards responded.

"This party is gonna be one for the ages! Legendary, even!" Kiba shouted, with glee.

Ryo looked at Kiba for a second as he sees the white wolfdog hybrid's enthusiasm goes all the way up to extreme and he said, "Land back down on the ground before you hurt yourself, dude."

"I think this is gonna be just one of the most celebrations no one will forget." Skyler added.

Viper nods in agreement and some of the Hazards had left the Hall of Heroes to take a break while Takami, Kiba, Layla, Faith, Kaizer and Hope stayed behind for a minute or two and as they had gathered around to check on the invite list, the door suddenly bursts open and they looked up and see a very fumed Tigress walking past and right behind her was Samurai coming by.

"Samurai? What's going on?" asked Faith, obviously concerned.

Tigress was completely stunned to know that Samurai was following her without her knowledge and she turns around very angrily and asked, "Have you been following me?!"

"Yeah, I have. You can't ban Max from the Jade Palace." Samurai replied, folind his arms.

That became a shock to some of them, including Layla and Kiba after hearing the news and it was so sudden that they had no idea what's going on or what to comprehend and Kiba asked, "Why's Max banned from the Jade Palace?"

"He's not banned, Kiba. Neither is he exluded from the Halloween party." Samurai replied, calmly.

"Erase the Bushido-Akio's names off the invitation list! I want no mention of them in the Jade Palace, period! Max has just disrespected me in the worst way possible!" Tigress shouted.

Layla could tell something's up because it's not like Max is disrespect Tigress or anyone and she knew him much better and wanted to get to the bottom of this and asked, "What did he do?"

"I'm not telling you." Tigress exclaimed.

Samurai sighed at this and figured if Tigress won't tell them, he will and he doesn't care how Tigress will react to it because he'll always defend Max until the bitter end as he turned to them and noticed some concerned faces coming from Layla, Takami and Kiba because they wanted to know what was going on between Max and Tigress. He took a deep breath and replied, "It's all over a costume Max wore."

For some, it didn't seem like a good reason for her to ban Max from the Halloween party and when Tigress heard the answer, she felt like leaping up towards Samurai and tear off his throat and esophagus into pieces for revealing the answer right in front of her and her meteoric fumes are starting to rise and tense up. Takami's only reaction to that was a raised eye and a confused tilt on his head and asked, "That's it? A costume?"

"You mean Tigress got upset with Max and banned him from this awesome party over a costume?" asked Kiba, in total disbelief.

"What kind of costume was it?" asked Faith.

"A clown costume." Samurai replied.

"SHUT UP, SAMURAI!" Tigress growled, angrily.

Samurai refused to back down and spilled the whole beans about what went down and told them, "Tigress lost her cool once again over Max's costume of choice and because of that, she banned him from both the Jade Palace and the Halloween party all because she hates clowns. I personally think Max's costume is awesome and it doesn't matter what he should or shouldn't wear to the costume no matter what it is. She also told him that she'll be happy if he leaves the Valley of Peace next year and doesn't care how others would feel about it and that if he comes back here, she'll hurt him so bad that he won't live to be 12."

As soon as Samurai told half of the Hazards about the situation that took place, most of them were really shocked and had thought that this so called petty feud between Tigress and Max was already over, but it turns out that costume issue brought back all the old stuff again and Takami just could not believe that Tigress would say something like that to Max and he asked, "Tigress, is that true?"

Tigress ended up being silent through it all because she knew that Samurai spoke the truth and that there was no way to get out of it. She wanted to make an excuse for what she had done, but she also knew that she couldn't lie to her student straight to his face so she stayed quiet. Yet the silence in Tigress' face said it all for Takami and he said, "I thought you guys had already put an end to your rivalry and you're just telling him he's banned for life at the palace over this costume? That's really no reason to keep him from coming here."

"Max is a disrespectful jerk. I don't care what you think about him. I forbid you to say one word in his defense." Tigress said, very coldly.

"Then I'll say something in Max's defense."

Tigress turned around to see a very disappointed, yet obviously upset Shifu coming in the palace and said, "You had absoultely no right to lose your temper at that costume place, especially in front of Max. Do you know how embarrassing it was for me to witness this? You also embarrassed Max."

"I apologize if I embarrassed you, Shifu." Tigress said.

Shifu rose an eyebrow to this and he said, "Not good enough. It's not me you should apologize to."

Then, Tigress figured out that Shifu's suggestion was that the person she should really apologize to was Max and that puts a twinge of fury into her and said, "I'm not gonna apologize to Max. I've said what I had to say. The fact that Max had to dress up as a freaky looking clown is a complete disrespect to me. Somebody erase Max's name off of the invite list."

"Don't bother. He's still going as well as the Bushido-Akio family. We don't give them petty reasons for them not to be invited unless something came up." Shifu responded.

"Shifu, Max is not coming! Do not bring him over here! He's not allowed back here!" Tigress shouted.

Samurai can tell this is getting ugly and he decided the best way to end this is to take a vote before someone gets hurt and he said, "Excuse me! Before there's a certain bloodshed happening here, let's take a vote. Whoever wants Max at the party, raise your paws."

Samurai rose his paw first and soon enough, Shifu, Takami, Ryo, Skyler, Faith, Layla, Kiba, Viper, Hope and Kaizer rose their paws and tail in response and Tigress was stunned that she's gonna be outvoted and Samurai asked, "Any opposed?"

Tigress rose her hand for the opposition and judging from the difference between above and against, she could tell that she's outvoted and Samurai responded, "It's unanimous."

"I don't care. He's still not coming and he can rot in a graveyard for all I care." Tigress added.

Shifu could tell that the verbal assault wasn't gonna end because there's something deeper going on than what she can give out and said, "I know of your fear of clowns, Tigress. That does not excuse you for saying all the horrible things you said about young Maximus. He is coming to this party and so is the rest of his family and that is that."

Tigress just grew frustrated that all of this is happening and she just stormed out of the Hall of Heroes in fury, but not before opening the door and seeing Max coming up the steps with Po, Crane, Mantis, Monkey, Phoenix and Blaze and they stopped for a second seeing a visibly furious Tigress standing there and Phoenix asked, "Can you kinda explain why you blew up in the costume shop?"

Tigress was in no mood to talk to Phoenix, but her eyes were on Max and she growled at him and said, "You have a lot of nerve coming back here. I'll never forgive you for what you did to me."

"Over a costume? Really, Tigress?" asked Mantis.

"A costume for something I really hate the most; clowns! Max, you have disrespected me and you'll live to regret that. Mark my words." Tigress snarled.

"You know, those words will come back to haunt you." Blaze stated.

"Shut up! I don't want to hear it from you! I'll be training!" Tigress said, leaving in frustration.

Po sighed at this and he looked up at Max and said, "Just give her some time to cool down and maybe she'll forget about it."

Just then, they came in the palace and Max sees the Hazards standing there and all of them were astonished by how much Max had grown since they've last seen him and Max said, "Hi, guys."

"Max!" everyone exclaimed.

Kiba was the first one to come over to Max and they did their handshake/fist-bump/high-five/bro-hug greeting as they've always done whenever they see each other and Kiba said, "What up, buddy?"

"Not a lot. Just got my costume." Max replied.

"Cool! Can we see it?" asked Kiba exclaimed.

Max pulls out the costume out of the bag and it's revealed as a zombie/vampire clown with half-black and full colored clown costume with a vampire/zombie combo in it along with a killer blood eyes, rubber knife and make up, which surprised all of the Hazards. Ryo widened his eyes at this and said, "That make-up kinda looks like Skyler when she wakes up in the morning."

Skyler turned to Ryo and stomped on his foot hard for that comment. which made Ryo yelp and whimper in pain as he tends to his stomped foot. Ryo's only response to that was, "That hurts!"

"Think twice before you comment on how I look like in the morning." Skyler said, sternly.

Faith looks at the costume Max has and said, "That looks so awesome. I don't know what Tigress' problem is."

"Yeah, but all I can say is that this will be the coolest costume ever." Skyler agreed.

Kiba thought about hanging out with Max for the day and he said, "We haven't been hanging out like we used to. We ought to catch up."

"What did you have in mind?" asked Max.

* * *

We see Kiba and Max catch up and their bond hits a deeper level!


	7. Brotherhood Between a Tiger and a Wolf

Kiba and Max's brotherhood runs deep...

* * *

Chapter 7: Brotherhood Between a White Wolf and White Tiger

Almost immediately, Max and Kiba were hanging around Kiba's dorm and Max wore his costume to show off to Kiba and as he puts on his mask, Kiba was completely wide-eyed from the first glimpse of Max's costume and he said, "Whoa...that is the coolest costume ever!"

"You like?" asked Kiba.

"Dude, I knew you were gonna go all out for something awesome this year, but this goes way beyond what I had thought before. It's so cool, man!" Kiba said, very enthusiastically.

Max smiled at this and he knew that it would impress his white wolf brother the most and Max could tell when he saw Kiba's tail wagging very fast that he's totally happy and stoked up about the costume choice and Kiba said, "I can't wait to see this at the Halloween party!"

"And I'm also gonna go trick or treating on Halloween night in that costume." Max responded.

"Sweet! I bet you're gonna get a lot of candy, huh?" asked Kiba.

Max nodded his head in response and Kiba responded by coming close to him and gave him a big noogie as Max starts laughing while he got noogied and afterwards, Max looked at Kiba and said, "You're so much fun to be around."

"You're fun to be around too." Kiba replied.

Max smiled at this and soon enough, Kiba lowered his ears a little and his smile faded a little and Max could tell something's up with Kiba and he asked, "You okay? Why are you sad for some reason?"

"Well...I just remembered that you're gonna leave the Valley of Peace next year when you and the rest of your family move to Shanghai Secluded Valley." Kiba answered.

Max realized that since him and Kiba have grown so close with each other and have a lot of fun together, their brotherhood bond is so deep that it could never be broken. But for Kiba, knowing that Max will be gone in one year means that he won't see him as much as they used to because Kiba sees Max as his own little tiger brother that he never had before. Max comes to him and said, "Kiba...we've been tight since I was eight and you've been like my big brother...besides Arizona. Even though I'll be gone in a year, I'll still be your best buddy and I'll always be your best buddy."

"Yeah, I know. But it just won't be the same." Kiba added.

"Remember the pact that we made a few years ago?" asked Max.

Kiba blinked his eyes a few times as Max mentioned the pact that they had made years ago and nodded his head in response as Max said, "No matter how far apart we may be, there's one thing that will never change..."

Kiba looked up at Max as he recited one part of the pact they had made and is surprised that he had remembered it and Kiba said, "...the brotherhood we have with each other will never die, no matter how strange."

"We're one in the same, through good times and bad..." Max added.

"Even when we're happy, angry or sad..." Kiba stated.

"You pick me up when I fall..." Max continued.

"And we'll continue backing each other up against it all..." Kiba continued.

"Some friendships come and go when they part..." Max added.

"But we are one with a place in our hearts." they both concluded.

Both of them looked at each other in the eye and it definitely sent a huge connection that they still have from the first moment they met and Kiba immediately comes to Max and hug him tightly as Max hugs Kiba back tightly. Max looks at Kiba and said, "Don't be sad, Kiba. You'll always be my big brother...and my very best friend."

That means a lot for Kiba and he blinks his eyes a few times and replied, "And you'll always be my little tiger brother, man."

Kiba pulls out his fist and Max gladly pounded his fist and then bring it back with an explosion sound that solidified that their friendship and brotherhood will remain the same way no matter where he goes and Max said, "We've got a whole year left until then, so let's make the most of what we got."

Kiba agreed with that and that made him happy and said, "Let's do it."

Max removed his costume and placed it back in his bag and turned to Kiba with a smile and said, "You're the first person outside of my family and the masters that saw the costume. I want the others to be surprised when Halloween comes."

"Gotcha." Kiba said, winking.

Just then, both Kiba and Max walk out of the room and find themselves with a very curious Ligress standing by and she asked, "So...what are you guys up to?"

"We're gonna have some fun. Wanna join us?" asked Kiba.

"Like...?" asked Ligress.

"How about we do a Halloween prank on Kaizer?" asked Max.

That sparks a huge idea of excitement on Kiba and asked, "What do you have in mind?"

Max started thinking of a supercool idea that exposed his mischevious side further and said, "I think we'll have to bring in Hope for this."

Just then, Hope opened his room quickly and said, "I'm listening!"

Sometime later

Kaizer walks by the hallway of the barracks on his way to the bathroom to take a shower after a long day of training and organizing and he walked past the kitchen where Kiba, Ligress, Max and Hope are playing cards and after hearing the bathroom door open and close, Max and Kiba lead both Hope and Ligress close to the bathroom very quietly to see the end result.

At the bathroom, Kaizer got some towels out and a fresh pair of clothes as he took off his vest and pants and as he opened the shower, he saw a skeleton with a zombie mask dangling around and that freaked Kaizer out and it spurt noodle broth out of its mouth and into Kaizer's face.

Kaizer spat out the brother from his mouth and it left with a huge stain on his underwear and he groaned loudly and said, "My underwear's all wet!"

Just then, Hope and Kiba burst out laughing while Ligress and Max only snickered softly, but the loud laughter was enough to capture Kaizer's attention and he immediately opened up the door and saw Hope and Kiba rolling on the floor, laughing hysterically. Hope turns around and sees Kaizer and said, "You definitely fell for it! How did the taste of noodle broth taste?"

Kaizer snarls in response and said, "Who did this?"

Hope and Kiba raised their paws to say that they claim responsibility to the prank and once Kaizer got the answer, he asked, "I hope you guys are good runners."

Hope knows that all too well and said, "Yep, I see where this is going."

Hope quickly runs out along with Kiba and after a few seconds, Kaizer took off in his underwear to chase them, totally unaware that Ligress and Max were hiding in the further part of the hallway and Ligress asked, "How did you become a master prankster?"

Max chuckled in response and answered, "Let's just say I learned it from Kiba and some of my brothers."

"Hey, Max. Why's Kaizer running around in his underwear?" asked Samurai, coming in.

Max could only answered, "Beats me."

* * *

Pranks for everyone! Stay tuned as we go from the funny to the scary...in Tigress' dreams that is. *sinister laugh*


	8. The Nightmare Begins

Shifu's quote on that Tigress' words directed at Max may come back to haunt her. Now that particular warning will be confirmed in Tigress' nightmare.

* * *

Chapter 8: The Nightmare Begins

As nightfall comes, Tigress was still angry at Max for coming out with that clown costume and she took that as a very direct personal attack because of her fear and dislike for clowns and for Max to wear that costume is a complete disregard by adding salt to the wounds. Despite spending most of the day training, she still feels very furious towards Max, but realzies that she may have embarrassed him earlier today by screaming at the top of her lungs towards him at that costume shop. She lets out a huge sigh and sat down on her bed, thinking about what she had done.

As she got lost in her thoughts, it was interrupted by a simple knock on the door and she said, "What?"

"Hey, Tigress...it's Po."

It sorta added to the aggravation that she's already in and she said, "What do you want, Po?"

"Can I come in first?" asked Po.

"Whatever." Tigress replied, with a scowl.

Po could tell that Tigress is still miffed about what had happened earlier today and he silently opened the door and slowly came in the room to avoid an all-out brawl. Tigress could see the gesture Po's making and she sighed softly and told him, "I'm not gonna hurt you...this time."

"Are you sure?" asked Po, a little unconvinced.

Tigress sighed exasperatedly at Po's comment and she replied, "Yes, I'm sure."

"Still mad, aren't you?" asked Po.

"Yes, I am. I'm still very mad at Max for showing us that costume. Can you believe that he would go so far to truly disrespect me in front of you?" asked Tigress.

Po blinked his eyes on that question and he said, "I don't think his intentions were to disrespect you...or us. He probably wanted to try something new and fresh."

"Are you sticking up for him?" asked Tigress, feeling betrayed.

Suddenly, this flowing accusation struck through and Po was defintiely preplexed as to what she just said and said, "I didn't say I'm sticking up for him. I'm only saying you might've overreacted just a smidge."

"Overreacted? Overreacted?! I was not overreacting at the costume shop! I was just scolding Max on how much that clown costume made me furious!" Tigress shouted.

"That was an overreaction." Crane said, from a distance.

"Nobody asked you! So shut up before you force me to slice your beak!" Tigress shouted.

Po could tell that Tigress is still fuming over Max and that it could take a long time before she could cool herself off and he slowly backed away silently as he walked out of the room, causing Tigress to react and she said, "Where are you going?"

"I think it's usually the cue when I should back off. Besides, I know when I can't help someone that can't help themselves. But what I can say is that whatever you had said to Max will catch up with you." Po said, before heading out of the room.

But even Po's words did little to soothe Tigress' nerves and she just laid down on her bed and hopes that some sleep will help her calm down, but it's proven unlikely that she'll get over it. She then falls asleep for a while and while she's asleep, she hears footsteps coming in the room and she slowly wakes up to look around to see who's there and almost immediately, she sees someone there that looks like Max and when she got up, she said, "Max, if you're here to get on my nerves, get out of my room and go back home."

But there was silence instead and Max is still here and that started to aggravate Tigress even further and she said, "Do you even hear what I'm saying?"

Still silence fills the room and Tigress had just reached the boiling point and she said, "Okay, Max...you asked for it! I wanted to beat you up anyway for what you did to me!"

As she sets to lunge at him, Max had already grabbed her by the fist very quickly and that stunned Tigress to know that Max had already knew he was there and her move and he responded by throwing her to the wall. As she lays on the floor, she gets a chance to look at him and it revealed a different Max...one without any eyes and a glowing shade of crimson red and black on each side.

The eyeless Max slowly comes towards her and without saying a word, the light shows the mounds of old scars all over his face and that made Tigress completely shaken and fearful of what he looks like and Max said, in a distorted demonic voice, "You want to see scary?"

Max's voice completely shocked Tigress because it didn't sound like a normal 11 year old's voice at all and Max's face changed from normal eyeless scars into a flaming inferno with a face to match and soon his entire body is in flames, but it remained as is without feeling any pain and his fangs were of blood fire dripping out of his mouth as Max laughs demonically and said, "Prepare to get some payback!"

Max leaps to the air and landed on Tigress as he thrashed her around and yanked her by the ankle and pulled her under her own bed, with Tigress trying to escape, but it's prove futile and mounds of little Maximus beasts came over to terrorize her with mounds of bloody, scarry and monstrous faces surrounding her and Tigress hopes that this is all just a dream.

"GET ME OUT OF HERE!" Tigress screamed.

Just then, Tigress woke up from her bed and it was still light and she looks to see anything out of place and luckily, it was all just the same and she panted heavily and laid back down in her bed and said, "It was all just a dream."

She then blew out the lantern light and went to sleep...unaware that a certain demonic striped tiger that looks like Max is under her bed and said, "Or so you think."

* * *

This is just the start of the many nightmares that Tigress will have that involves different scary versions of Max. Can ya'll handle it?


	9. Creepy Tiger Cub

You thought this was the end? One nightmare just ain't enough!

* * *

Chapter 9: Creepy Tiger Cub

As Tigress falls back asleep, a quiet wind blows through the room, which is highly unusual for Tigress because no wind actually blows through her room and as she woke up, she looks around and noticed something didn't feel right for some reason and she looks over her shoulder to see if there's nothing weird coming in and as she gets out of her bed, she realized she stepped in something wet and as she looked down, half of the floor was spilled with blood. This was something she had never seen before, especially in her room.

She blinked her eyes as she couldn't believe that there was bloodshed somewhere and never even recognized it and as she lifts her head up, she sees some drips of blood coming from the wall and wanted to know where it came from and as she got closer, she then runs into something and from the looks of it, it was a decapitated body that just got stabbed multiple times and the blood is still fresh.

She found it all tied up and hung through the wall with a mask and as she pulls off the mask, she sees something that she never thought that she would see...it was Max. She gasped in full-fledged horror as the dead body that's bleeding was Max's and it all comes back to all the horrible things she had said about him back at the costume shop earlier.

She backs away for a short distance before finding herself in another body and as she turned around, another body of Max's is slumped to the wall and she quickly leapt out of his body and found it all shackled and chained, but brutally murdered. Before she could even react, she sees mounds of dead Max bodies' all over her room all spilled with blood and guts.

Tigress was shaking with so much horror that she couldn't get over the overwhelming sight of dead bodies and one just sprawled out of nowhere that Tigress couldn't see coming as she turned around; the skeletal remains of Max's body. Tigress started hyperventilating over the horrific sight that she's witnessing and the sight of all the blood was all too much for her to take and she ended up with her knees on the floor, panting heavily and felt like she was gonna vomit.

"Please tell me this isn't real. This isn't real! This is not real!" Tigress shouted.

"OH...but it is!"

Tigress immediately jumped up in her stance, but still completely fearful of what was to come and she said, "Show yourself!"

Soon enough, she sees someone with a dark cloak coming in front of her, his face not visible and Tigress tensed up as she panted heavily and the person with the dark cloak said, "Tigress...to think that you'd still be here even after all the things you just did."

"What are you talking about?" asked Tigress.

"Those dead bodies that you see here...wanna know how they got there? They're all here because of you." the figure with the cloak replied.

That seemed to put Tigress in a huge tizzy to hear that she was the cause of those dead bodies everywhere and she could not even believe it and asked, "Are you saying I did this?"

"Oh, yes you did. Your fury is the cause of all of this. You brutally murdered Max with your own words and hands, claws and everything else in between." the dark figure in the cloak replied.

"You're lying! You're lying! I don't believe you!" Tigress shouted.

"Do I?" asked the dark figure.

The dark figure slowly removed the hood of the cloak and revealed a demonic monstrous version of Max, much to Tigress' shock and disbelief that this was Max. She shuddered with so much bated breath and couldn't get over the horrifying look of Max; a one-eyed scarred-up demon version of himself and Demon Max said, "You made me this way!"

"How? How did I make you this way?" asked Tigress.

"Oh, like you already don't know! All the years I had to put up with your vicious abuse, cruel words and your jealousy! It's like I'm a nuisance to you and I've been doing nothing but be nice to you the whole time! And what have you given me in return? Nothing but contempt, abuse, ridicule and cruelty! What you've done made me the way I am now!" Demon Max exclaimed.

Tigress could tell that this demonic Max is carrying a serious grudge against me in the same way she held a grudge against him for just being a nice guy and she said, "Max...I'm sorry! I'm sorry if I blew up at you back at the costume shop!"

"It's a little too late to say you're sorry now, Tigress!" Demon Max shouted.

With that, Demon Max brought in his sword and aims it in the air and said, "Now you're gonna feel the same way I felt all those years!"

He leaps over to Tigress and viciously attacks her in huge retaliation while Tigress screams for help while getting stabbed multiple times as splatters of blood spill everywhere and Tigress felt absolutely helpless in defending herself and just then, Demon Max panted heavily as he stops himself and backs away from her and just then, he snaps his fingers as strings of rope sent her flying and out of nowhere, a dragon-demon version of Max with no eyes comes out of nowhere from the floor, opens his mouth and eats her whole.

Back to reality

Tigress woke up screaming out loudly and just fell out of her bed and into the ground, panting and she stood up quickly and saw that she's still in her room. No blood, no dead bodies, no nothing. Just plain and everything like it was normal. She panted heavily and just got back to bed and tries to fall asleep, hoping that nothing else happens.

But of course...this is not reality. She's still in a nightmare where the many monsters, demons and scary deadly clowns of Max are all keeping watch.

* * *

There's more to come! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!


	10. The Many Demons and Monsters of Maximus

Now we see many monster versions of Max in horror form.

* * *

Chapter 10: The Many Demons and Monster Nightmares of Maximus

Less than 10 minutes go by as Tigress tries to go back to sleep and out of the blue, someone's opening her door and she quickly woke up and tried to find out who did this, but no one was there. However, the door was open and she just thought it might've been accidentally opened by someone and she went over and closed the door as she makes her way back to her bed, walking past her mirror and after walking past, the lightning strikes and it silhouettes another demonic monster version of Max appearing, but only in secret.

As she gets back to bed and tries to go back to sleep, she sees the door opening again and she thought that it might not have been closed all the way and she gets back up to close it again, but as soon as she could, she got grabbed by the ankle by someone and dragged by, which made Tigress scream out loud and she tries to break free from that person's grip and once she does, she makes a mad dash to the door, but it's locked.

She tries everything to break the door down, but is proven unsuccessful. And to make it worse, the person that grabbed her by the ankle rose up and looks at Tigress as the lightning strikes revealing not one, or two, but 10 demonic and monster versions of Max all coming towards her as Tigress calls for help, but no one can hear her.

When she attempts to try to kick the door down, the door springs open and in comes a deadly monster version of Max, roaring directly to her face as blood comes out of his face and sharpened his long claws to take her down and Tigress backs away slightly and finds herself surrounded by mounds of demon and monstrous versions of Max coming to haunt her.

She started screaming out loud and throws them off and escaped her room to find assistance from someone and the first place she went to is in Po's room. She enters the room in hopes of needing Po's help in all of this and tries to wake him up, but nothing comes out. If there was ever time she needs him the most, it would be now.

"Po, please wake up! I need your help! I know that I'm the last person that ever wants your help, but I need your help more than anything!" Tigress shouted.

Soon enough, Po's head turns around and instead of Po, he removes the mask and reveals to be Max right in Po's body...which adds to the freaky instance of her fears to skyrocket as she sees that Max might've possessed Po with Max's body. She backed away and ran out of the room and tried to escape the barracks, but she found herself surrounded by mounds of demonic, monstrous and beastly versions of Max in different forms; most with one eye, some with three or six eyes and many without any eyes while some of their faces were deformed, burned, scarred or bloodied up ready for their victim to attack.

"If you would've only been nice to us." beast Max stated.

Tigress felt like she was backed against a wall because she found herself trapped with mounds of Max's all over and as she tried to escape, a black hole was summoned as it opens up the entire floor and as it crumbles over, a huge pair of hands come out of nowhere and grabs Tigress by the ankle to drag her down to the hole. Tigress tried to release herself from his grip as hard as she could, but those pair of hands prove to be stronger than her grip and she gets sucked down to that deep dark black hole where all of the other demonic monster versions of Max are watching and laughing.

Back to reality

Tigress woke up screaming again and once again, she found herself back in her room once again where everything's the same. At this point, she's scared to fall asleep again because more nightmares may come back to her and that Max is gonna haunt her in her dreams.

But it was a prediction that came true very quickly.

* * *

How frightening is that? But it ain't over!


	11. Zombie Max

And we see a zombie-fied version of Max in Tigress' nightmare!

* * *

Chapter 11: Zombie Max

As Tigress fell asleep, she could feel the wind blowing through her fur and she started shivering a little as she felt the cold air from out of nowhere and as she reached for something to keep her warm, she had touched some grass and that indicates that she's outside and when she woke up, she found herself laying near a grave and as she looks around, she realizes that she's in a graveyard all alone, surrounded by nothing but tombs. The thought of her being in a graveyard frightened her the most and she started wondering how she actually got there in the first place and when she stood up, it was eerily quiet when she walks around as the cold air blows through the night.

"Hello? Is there anyone here?" Tigress asked, hoping that someone can hear her.

And when she didn't hear anything back, that's when her fears ring truth that she's all alone in this graveyard and it just felt like she's the only person alive there...although that part is way too good to be true. As she walks past several tombstones, she spots one that's open and it's very unusual for a tombstone to be left open, so she walks by to shut it, but as she did so...she saw that there was no one in that particular tombstone.

It was very odd to see that a tombstone was open and no one's in there and it rose suspicion as to why and she shuts it anyway and went on her way...unaware that several other tombstones were open and gravestones were dug out somehow. She keeps walking around the cemetery to find her way out, but is oblivious that there were a pair of creepy eyes watching her every move, but slipped out of sight.

As she keeps walking, she could hear thunder rumbling from a distance and it's one she absolutely dreads the most...thunderstorms. Tigress groaned at this as she kept walking and trying to find a way out of this cemetery and said, "Can this get any worse?"

Just then, she heard a distant moan out of nowhere and Tigress leapt into defense mode to attack whoever's in her way and shouted, "Show yourself!"

Mounds of several moans came all over the place and when Tigress turns around, she sees some dead bodies just walking around, looking at her and this was not what she expected to see for the first time...

"Zombies..." Tigress said, completely fearful.

But these aren't those normal zombies. When one of those zombies stepped into the light, it revealed a very monstrous yet undead-like look of Max and once Tigress looks at the faces of many undead versions of Max, she just felt completely horrified that this is happening right now. Many zombie versions of Max came in with their faces mangled, some showing their skeletal faces and several of their faces are sewn shut.

The sounds of those terrifying moans surrounded Tigress and many of them were coming in after her and she came in face to face with the lead zombie...a very semi-burned zombie Max with his undead face looking like he had escaped from a terrible fire accident that left his skin and parts of his face burnt and his skin was cracking. The lead zombie points to Tigress and moans, "Attack!"

Soon enough, the zombie Max posse ganged up on her slowly and puts their arms out, though some of their arms, limbs or legs would fall off and in many cases, their lower jaw fell to the floor and Tigress got freaked out by being surrounded by zombies that have a lot of Maxisims in them and she tried to fight them off , but she sees that these Maximus zombies are much stronger than they think and one of them twisted her legs and threw her down to the ground.

Tigress' strength was definitely no match for those undead zombies as the number of Maximus' zombies continue to grow and Tigress sees a couple of others coming out of the graveyards and tombstones; each more freakier than the next and soon enough, there was a female version of Max as a zombie that came right behind her, which made Tigress nearly vomit to see a woman version of him right in her face.

"Tigress..." Zombie Max moaned.

All of them called her name as they walked closer towards her with their arms out and some of them grabbed her by the arms from behind and she screamed in terror as she struggled to get free, but the grip is way too strong for her to free herself and when she tried again, she fell off, leaving undead bodies tumbling on top of her.

She screamed in complete terror as she tries to flee and tries to escape the cemetery and as she makes a mad dash to the doors, she was hoping that she'll finally escape, but there's one little wrinkle...the door is locked shut. When she tries to open the gated doors, they won't open and that spells doom for Tigress and she growls in frustration. She tried kicking and punching the door down, but that proves no success because it's slammed shut.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no! This is not happening to me!" Tigress exclaimed, very desperately.

Suddenly, she sees the shadows forming and from the sounds of the moans coming in from behind, she can tell that those zombies of Max are coming after her and one of them even got a hacksaw and has blood spurting out of his face and in his nose that flows out from his nostrils and they all came over to her. Tigress desperately tries to climb out of the gate to escape, but the zombie Max posse got close to her as one grabbed her by the ankle and all of the zombies brought her down to the ground and surrounded her and she became trapped with the zombies.

"NOOOOOO!" Tigress screamed, as everything goes black.

Tigress woke up quickly as she fell down on the ground and as she leapt back up, she still finds herself back in her room and she panted heavily and figured that this was all a nightmare and she has lost herself in what's real and what's dream and all she wanted to do is to go right back to sleep and hope that this is the end.

Or is it?

* * *

It never ends! Freaky, huh? Stay tuned!


	12. Teddy Bear Nightmare

You wanna see how Tigress' teddy bear comes to life? Put it on Max and you'll see some scary results!

* * *

Chapter 12: Teddy Bear Nightmare

After that nightmare about zombies, Tigress became more anxious about what's gonna transpire next and those nightmares about all the scary versions of Max made her look back on the terrible things she had said about Max earlier today and she could hear Shifu's voice in her head loud and clear that those words would come back to haunt her, though she could never admit it to anyone else. She reached under her bed and pulls out her stuffed animal that has always been her secret companion since her time at the orphanage. She held close to it in hopes of making this whole situation go away and said, "You're still the only one that can understand me."

She thought that by holding close to the stuffed animal that it would help make the monsters go away and she laid it close to her as she's trying to go to sleep. What she doesn't know is that the stuffed animal is completely watching her in every move and it blinked a couple of times, then had her eyes drawn to Tigress as he switched his head around, waiting for Tigress to turn around so she can see her teddy bear.

The stuffed animal breathes for a short while, then blinks his eyes still waiting for Tigress to turn around as it shifts from a teddy bear to a living stuffed white tiger cub with the face of Maximus and he patiently waits until Tigress turns around and sees the stuffed tiger switch up and come to life. It didn't take long until Tigress turned around and she noticed her teddy staring right at her and when he opened her eyes and saw her teddy close, she noticed something different about this stuffed animal that it's transformed into a white tiger. She picked it up and wondered why it's a white tiger all of a sudden and turned it upside down and all of a sudden, she saw the stuffed tiger blink three times, which freaked her out.

She threw the stuffed animal to the ground as she leapt to the wall, completely freaking out that her stuffed animal is alive and she thought this is all a dream and that she's been asleep for too long and wants to wake herself up and get her out of this dream, but the minute she looked at the teddy tiger, she was absoultely horrified that it's actually standing up and staring at Tigress and wondered how it even happened.

"Hello, Tigress. Remember me?" asked the teddy tiger, in Max's voice.

Then, the sound of Max's voice completely filled Tigress with dread and fear in her face as she sees a lot of Max's features on that teddy bear has on his face and he walks a little closer towards her and Tigress backs away from him, fearing for what he'll do next. Tigress shuddered in fear and said, "You're not real. You're not real. You're just a figment of my imagination."

"Oh, am I really?" asked teddy Max, showing off his creepy smile with mounds of giant fangs and teeth...that are seeping with blood.

The sight of blood on the teddy's teeth made Tigress more scared than anything and before long, her treasure chest started rumbling and she quickly turned around to see what's causing it to rumble like that and as teddy Max looks at the treasure chest, he lets out a little devious smile and said, "Come to me, my friends!"

Tigress was very confused as to who these 'friends' teddy Max mentioned and just then, the door opens and out pops up many teddy versions of Max in different forms, but in deep scarier forms than the next. One was deformed, another had body parts yanked out and another had their faces in cute, but very frightening looks and as these mounds of teddy Maximus posse came out, seven of them got a rope and and wrapped it around her legs. She could hear make this scary and freaky giggle that sounds like it's innocent, but it's a combo of innocent and devious at the same time and as the lead teddy Max gave a nod to the ones that wrapped the rope around her legs, they pulled onto the rope, causing Tigress to fall down to the ground.

"Now, tie her up!" lead teddy Max shouted.

All of the teddy Max's ran over to tie her up while the others surrounded her, making scary faces as well as setting themselves on fire to add to the freakiest dimension and one of them became demonic and villanous by grabbing its own head off of it's body and shoved it close to her face with it's big eyes popping out and both pupils started laughing maniacally, spurting out guts and blood. Tigress screamed in complete terror as the little teddy Max's kept tying her up and four of them grabbed her by the hands and raised it in the air and tied the rope around her wrists.

"Let me go, you little beasts!" Tigress said, trying to gain control.

She tried to gain control of herself, but it ended up useless because she's all tied up and falls straight down on the ground countless times, which is great enetrtainment for the teddy Max's as they pointed and laughed at her. Tigress grunted with much efforts to free herself from the tight rope, but she was frustrated to know that these won't snap open or split apart.

"Maybe next time you'll think twice before you make a big fuss over what I'm gonna be for Halloween." lead teddy Max said, with a mixture of innocent and demonic voices.

Just then, all of the teddy Max's surrounded her and picked her up and carried her over towards an unknown place and Tigress was struggling to get herself out of their clutches, but the lead teddy Max watches her every move and with a devious smirk, he was definitely ready to surprise her with what's coming next.

Soon enough, they reached a dead end with a huge drop that's above 2 million feet above the ground and Tigress noticed their intent. She shuddered at this and said, "Let me go! I'll do anything you want!"

"Yeah, not happening." another teddy Max said.

"Can't you guys show a little mercy?" asked Tigress.

"NO! WE SHOW NO MERCY FROM NO ONE!" all the teddy Max army replied.

After that answer, they threw Tigress down off of the drop as the teddy Max posse cheered and laughed all while Tigress is screaming as she's falling and just when she's about to hit her death bed, she saw another set of teddy Max posse's coming in arms and she wanted to fall on the ground rather than be carried by another group of demon teddy Max's. But...that particular group was not done with her yet the minute they caught her and carried her.

"We're gonna take you to our big kahuna." another member of the teddy Max posse said.

"Big kahuna?" Tigress asked.

Just then, they all heard a huge roar/moan echo through and as soon as Tigress turns around, she is shocked and horrified by what she saw; a 300-pound head of a teddy Max with bigger and sharper claws with fire coming out of his eyes and his stripes are all bloody and scarred from the outside and the eyes are so scary and frightening, it would make anyone go blind.

"Big kahuna." another teddy Max said.

The big kahuna teddy Max looked down on his minions and asked, in a very squeaky, demonic voice, "What have you brought?"

"Your dinner, sir." another teddy Max replied.

He took one look at Tigress as his big head floated across the air and looks at Tigress and smells her and in an insant...he wags his tongue around his lips and said, "You smell delicious...almost as delicious as my leftovers."

"Your leftovers?" asked Tigress.

As the lights were turned on, she sees this huge cornucopia of dead bodies and skeletal remains surrounding the ground and many of them have skin and flesh while some don't and just lay there, much to Tigress' disgust and one of those bodies were hanging on the ceiling with their skeletals exposed and half of their flesh eaten as bugs started crawling all over them.

Tigress shuddered in disgust and felt completely disturbed by this and the big kahuna said, "Lunchtime!"

Tigress did not want to be lunch, but the teddy Max posse already went forward as they carried her close to the big kahuna teddy Max's mouth and with his mouth open wide, they threw her to the inside of the kahuna's mouth and ate her up while Tigress was screaming in terror while the other teddy Max posse's were laughing and enjoying the feast.

Just then...

Tigress woke up back and she panted heavily as she checked to make sure she's still in one piece and she found herself back in her room and she realizes that she's starting to struggle between what's real and what's dream. She knows that being eaten by a big kahuna teddy version of Max is just a bad dream and that it would be completely impossible for that to happen in real life, as well as a teddy bear coming to life and being in a freaky scary state and all.

Suddenly, she starts thinking that Max might get her back someday and she hopes that she'll get a chance to even apologize to him if needed. But she has an uneasy feeling that the nightmare isn't done with her yet.

* * *

One more round of nightmare torture for Tigress! Stay tuned!


	13. Killer Clown Max

Now we see Tigress in her final nightmare...this time, taking on a Maximus version of the one she hates; clowns.

* * *

Chapter 13: Killer Clown Max

Tigress desperately tried to go to sleep because she has been trapped in several nightmares in what seems like eternity and as much as she tried to go to sleep, her eyes are getting red, puffy and very heavy to stay awake because each time she tries to close her eyes, they keep getting open because of all the times she kept waking up from all of those nightmares she had that were all about Max and she fears of what happens next if she tries to go to sleep.

As she closes her eyes to go back to sleep, a fast vision of a clown came out of the blue and it started calling her name in a very demonic, creepy and innocent voice that she definitely did not want to hear.

"Tigress..."

She finds herself somewhere in the air, her arms and legs wide and shackled up and when she looked down, she knew that she was in trouble and she tried to set herself free, but the shackles refused to budge and they're stronger than steel.

"Tigress..."

That voice came back again and Tigress doesn't know what to do at this point or who's making that sound and almost immediately, she was pulled up from 300 feet above the ground and then tumbled down towards the ground into a strange, colorful place but with a very dark and twisted vibe and she knew that this was gonna be a dangerous position.

But the second the door opens, she saw a shadow walking by with a full-on clown silhouette standing right in front of her and this goes way beyond her worst fears because she hates clowns. Having a nightmare about clowns severely added to her fears coming alive and she hears that clown calling her name one more time and it hit her...

"Tigress..."

It was that clown that called her by name and as he walked close, she backed away very quickly, not wanting that clown to get anywhere near her, but as soon as the clown left the shadows and showed himself, it was just as she feared...

The clown revealed himself to be a scary, demonic and very child-like version of Max with that same Halloween costume, but instead this particular costume has dried and smeared blood splatter in parts of them and Tigress widened her eyes to see that this is Max in this position and she said, "This can't be happening! This cannot be happening to me!"

"This is what happens when you try to say something mean about my Halloween costume! You made me into an evil, evil person!" Max shouted.

"How did I make you evil?" asked Tigress.

"With all of your cruel words, always wanting to fight me and you were always jealous of me because your friends hang out with me more! The final straw was when you embarrassed me in that costume shop when you yelled at me in front of all these people. I have never been more humiliated in my life!" Max exclaimed.

It was very unexpected for Tigress to hear that Max had been carrying a deep grudge based on that comment she made and how it affected him for the rest of his life and Tigress said, "I'm sorry, Max. I should never had said that about you!"

"Well, it's too late to change that now! Because you said you hated clowns, I've assembled an army of freaky scary clowns to take you down!" Demon Clown Max exclaimed.

Tigress quivered her lips as Max called them out and before long, mounds of evil demon clowns showed up and they surrounded her with many demonic, ugly and twisted faces set to make Tigress scream in terror and she said, "This has gone too far! Can't you just leave me alone!"

"NO!" the clown Max posse exclaimed.

All of them were laughing in a high-pitched, creepy demonic way and one of them showed a huge hole in his teeth that looked like it was shot right out of a cannon, which creeped out Tigress a lot and she squirmed in fear as they got closer and closer. Demon Clown Max looked on in sheer delight to watch her get scared to death with the sight of those clowns all around her.

Demon Clown Max giggles in glee watching this and said, "This is gonna be a lot of fun."

"Get them away from me!" Tigress shrieked, as mounds of clowns piled on her.

Those clowns all got up on her face and just made the most freakiest, scariest faces ever...one of them turned his head inside out and his face is the inside of his mouth while another one closed his eyes and revealed there were no eyes and spikes coming through his face and one of them set his entire face on fire and blood streams all the way out of it.

The lead demon clown Max walks over to Tigress and he grabs her by the legs and with the rest of the clown posse, carry her and takes her to the torture funhouse and by the time they got in there, they shoved Tigress in for a ride to see the most gruesome scary clowns ever and as she goes on this ride, it was just as she feared.

Surrounding herself with clowns just laughing and pie throwing all around, but this pie was full of blood and guts all over and the faces of those clowns pop up all over her face showing their creepiest and scariest state plus mounds of Maximus images of himself as a gruesome creepy clown to kill and its number-one target is Tigress.

She sees herself being tortured and tormented by all of Max's clown army as payback and as soon as the ride goes faster, the faces of Max as clowns kept showing up and popping around in every direction and she started screaming out loud to get off the ride, but it took her all the way to the huge mouth of the demon clown Max where fire comes by and as she goes down, she begins screaming more and more until...

She wakes back up screaming, panting heavily and found herself in her bed once again and in her room and she needed to go back to sleep and she took a look at herself in the mirror and when she does, she sees that she's turned into Max wearing that clown costume with that blood splatter from that dream and she started screaming loudly because she got transformed to Max.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

* * *

Next chapter...she's back in reality!


	14. It's Only a Dream

And the nightmares are finished and she's back in reality.

* * *

Chapter 14: It's Only a Dream

Tigress kept screaming at the top of her lungs after mounds of horrendous nightmares all involving Max coming after her in many different forms and even waking up as Max in her own body that freaked her out more than anything. Her screaming immediately caught Po's attention as he quickly rushed over to her room and found a screaming, frightened Tigress in her bed and he quickly came over to calm her down and he said, "Tigress! Tigress, wake up! Wake up!"

The minute she opened her eyes, she immediately reacted to clawing someone in the face, thinking that it would be a demon Max, but when she heard a giant thud coming from the room, she stopped screaming and quickly looked up to see that it's just Po laying there with his face battered with her claw marks and she panted heavily and is still shaking from that nightmare. Po grunts as he tried to get himself back up and faced Tigress with those marks on his face and she covered her mouth in shock as to see what she had just did and said, "I'm so sorry, Po. I thought you were the demon Max coming at me for revenge!"

Po became completely confused about what she just said right in front of him and asked, "Demon Max? What are you talking about? It's all a dream."

"I thought it was, but it's not. It's real. Look!" Tigress exclaimed, as she removed her cover and is surprised that there's nothing there, but back to her old self. Po, however...sees something small in parts of her bed that he immediately recognized right in front of her. He chuckled softly and said, "I see...you ate cookies in your bed."

Tigress didn't know it and in confusion, she looked at those tiny cookie crumbs on the floor and seemed kinda embarrassed by this and she wiped it off quickly and Po said, "Been there, done that, still do it. I think those cookie cravings before bed must've made you dream some pretty strange things that you probably wouldn't have dreamt about."

Tigress seemed kinda stunned to know those effects that Po just mentioned, but seeing that there were cookie crumbs on her bed made her confirm his truth and said, "I guess so."

"Well, it's all over now. You should probably get some sleep because you've got some sparring tomorrow before Shifu gives us half a week off for the Halloween festives." Po added.

Tigress sighed heavily as the last thing she would want to do is sleep because those nightmares may come to her if she's asleep and is scared that it might become much worse than before. Po blinked his eyes a little bit and she still seemed very troubled by those and he said, "You still upset with Max?"

"No, Po...not anymore. I think those nightmares taught me something. That I shouldn't have reacted the way I did to Max in front of everyone back at the costume shop. I guess I let my fear of clowns get the best of me. I still hate them, but I should've took him to the side and talk about it instead of screaming at him and saying so much hateful words to him." Tigress replied, expressing a great deal of remorse.

"Well...you can apologize to him. Maybe explain to him why you were acting that way and that maybe this could've been said in a different way." Po replied.

"No, Po. I can't face him. He might hate me." Tigress added.

"Tigress...when has Max ever hated you?" asked Po.

Tigress thought about it for a minute and for the years since she met him, she can't recall the one time he has ever hated her, even when she has some unconditional spite towards him and she answered, "Never."

"Well, you never know until you try." Po responded.

Both of them were unaware that Shifu was listening and knows that if Tigress can't bring herself to apologize to Max, he might as well apologize to Max in her behalf and quietly walks away to the Bushido-Akio house to meet Max in the middle of the night.

Po gets back up and walks out of the room, but not before mentioning something to her and he said, "By the way, I saw some pee stains on your bed."

Tigress froze herself and realized that she peed on herself after all the nightmares she had and this has never happened to her before and just felt so embarrassed by this and she said, "This is not my night."

"Don't worry. I won't tell anyone...maybe." Po said, muttering the last phrase.

* * *

And we have something on Tigress; she peed on herself! *laughing hysterically* I know it's out of her character, but who doesn't pee themselves when they're really scared? Stay tuned for more!


	15. All Apologies

Shifu comes over to make amends with Max in person and we get a little something on Samurai...

* * *

Chapter 15: All Apologies

3:45 AM, at the Bushido Akio house

Everyone in the house is already asleep and through the hallways, everything was dark and quiet around the house...well, almost quiet as we look into Samurai's room as he was snoring very loudly and Samurai is a very deep heavy sleeper and Samurai's not the only one in the room, both Max and Phoenix are in the room as well as Samurai shared his room with his brothers. Phoenix was definitely annoyed by the snoring as he tried to put his head under a pillow in hopes to keep the snoring at bay, but it failed as the snoring grew louder.

Max, on the other hand...has gotten tolerable of his snoring as he fell asleep like nothing ever happened and it didn't really bother him a lot. Phoenix looks at his adopted tiger brother and saw that he's asleep in the midst of Samurai snoring and whispered, "How does he not get bugged about Sammy's snoring? He's a way better trooper than me."

With a heavy sigh, Phoenix laid himself down and tried to get some rest, but less than 10 seconds, he hears a knock on the door from downstairs, which woke Samurai up. Samurai opened his eyes with a heavy grunt as he sits up, scratches his head and gets himself up but not before letting out a big fart as he walks out of the room. He walks downstairs with nothing but his burlap shorts with the dragons all over as he makes his way to the door, opens it up and looks around to see who's there.

"Hello, Samurai."

Samurai looks down and sees Shifu standing there and he said, "Hey, Shifu. How's it going?"

"I apologize for intruding at this time of night, but is is possible that I can speak to Max?" asked Shifu.

Samurai lets out a small yawn and said, "It's almost 4:00 in the morning. Can't it wait until like...daylight?"

"It's very important." Shifu replied.

A very half-sluggish Samurai sighed heavily and he blinks his eyes twice and said, "Okay. Come on in. I'll bring him over."

"Thank you." Shifu answered as he stepped into the house.

Samurai walks back upstairs to get Max, but is surprised that someone came out of the bathroom and that someone was Max and that obviously woke him up quickly and asked, "Hey, what are you doing up?"

"To use the bathroom." Max replied.

Samurai nods at that response and he said, "Okay then. Shifu's downstairs and he said he wants to talk to you."

"Now?" asked Max, his eyebrows raised.

"Yeah, now. Hopefully this can be quick so I can go back to sleep because if I come to the noodle shop sleepy, Mr. Ping's gonna give me a mouthful." Samurai added.

"Okay." Max replied, walking downstairs with Samurai and meeting up with Shifu.

"Hello, Max. I apologize for coming in so late, but I felt that I had to speak with you and make sure you're okay after all that had happened earlier." Shifu replied.

Max walked close to Shifu and said, "I'm okay. And also...I'm not really that upset by what Tigress said. I was a little surprised and sorta hurt by what she said, but I'm not mad at her at all. Never have been."

That response took Shifu by surprise and is blown away by Max's forgiving nature and even when he grows older, that part of him still exists. To Shifu, it's like he's become very wise and mature for his age and that's usually a rarity that many 11-year olds have these days. He then said, "Wow...I didn't expect this to come out of you...but then again, you never cease to amaze me. You're an amazing young person and I wish that every single warrior can follow your shining example."

Max is very flattered and humbled by those thigns Shifu said and he said, "Thanks, but it's nothing really major. That's just how I am."

"And so much more. I would be a total moron if I were to tell you and your family will not come to the festivities at the Jade Palace." Shifu said.

"I still wanna go." Max added.

"Yeah, and so do we. We're all sorry about what had happened earlier at the costume shop." Samurai stated.

Shifu turns to Samurai for a second and asked, "What do you have to apologize for? You did not do anything wrong."

"Yeah, I know. But I think we all should've stepped out of there and talked about it. Part of me feels partially responsible for just letting my protectiveness get the better of me because I just called Tigress out. I should've calmed down first and then settle the issue imemdiately. It's just that given Max's past story of what he went through before he came to our lives, I'm just very protective of him. Like...I'd do anything for him. I'd die for this little guy if I have to keep him safe." Samurai responded.

"You're a remarkable big brother, Samurai." Shifu commended.

"He's an awesome brother." Max said, smiling in agreement.

Shifu chuckled at this and he said, "I'm very glad it all worked out. I must go back to the palace. You should rest up too."

"We will. Thanks, Shifu." Samurai said, waving to him.

After Shifu left the house, Samurai and Max were pretty good about the outcome of this and Samurai said, "Let's go back to bed, buddy."

"Okay. As long as you don't snore again." Max added.

Samurai chuckled softly at that comment and said, "My snoring's not that loud."

Max brought that point across as he makes sounds of Samurai snoring and Samurai's response was rolling his eyes and said, "Whatever, dude."

* * *

More with Max coming up!


	16. Scary Sight

These are the effects of Tigress' nightmare.

* * *

Chapter 16: Scary Sight

As morning comes in the Jade Palace, Shifu stands by the barracks waiting for his students to come out and by the time the outside gong rings, half of the students plus the Hazards were already up, with Shifu waiting at the door as they say, "Good morning, master!"

Just then, Po comes out of the room quickly and said, "Morning, Master Shifu!"

As Shifu sees the students up, he noticed there was one still missing and he said, "Is Tigress up?"

That seemed to sorta put the masters by surprise because Tigress is always the first one to be out of the room along with everyone else in the morning and Po would be either a little late getting up or stumbles to leave the room after the gong bongs and Shifu said, "Tigress, wake up!"

With that, Shifu kicked the door open and by the time everyone else took a peek, Shifu could see a very discombobulated and very tired-looking Tigress still in her bed. Shifu quickly walked to the side of her bed and threw her off by grabbing the end of the bed and Tigress slumped out of bed and onto the floor, but the minute she hits the floor, she's wide awake screaming maniacally.

Her screaming caused everyone to react back and Shifu looks at Tigress' face and her eyes were all messed up with these huge bags under her eyes and her face looked disheveled as well as her whiskers that got messed up a lot and Po could recognize that look from anywhere when someone's having more than one nightmare.

"Tigress...you don't look so good." Monkey said, in shock.

Tigress was so out of it that she thinks she's still in the dream and asked, "Are you trying to get in my head, Max?"

That confused Monkey very quickly and threw everyone else off that she would call Monkey Max right in front of her and Kiba looked very surprised and said, "Whoa...she looks more worse than me when I have nightmares."

"GET OUT OF MY HEAD! I don't want to see any clowns all around me, trying to kill me! Don't feed me to your big kahuna!" Tigress screamed.

Now it's gone from weird to straight up scary in a flash because Tigress is completely wigging out over those nightmares and Po seemed confused on her current state because she was fine last time he checked on her and now it's like she's still dreaming and Po thought of an idea to snap her out of the dream and he cleared his throat and said, "Tigress, the training hall's burning down."

That seemed to wake Tigress up quickly and she said, "What?!"

Just then, she ran off, hoping to see that the training hall wasn't burning down unaware that it was just a ruse to wake her up and Shifu was surprised to see that that was enough to wake Tigress up quickly, but confused that he mentioned the training hall is burning. He then turned to Po and asked, "The training hall is still here, panda."

"I know. I just said that to wake her up so she can come back to her senses." Po answered.

After a shrot second, Tigress came back to the barracks and looked directly at Po and said, "The training hall is still here. Why did you make up that lie that it's burning?"

"Just to wake you up. You were still dreaming about that nightmare right in front of us." Po answered.

"How? I don't remember that." Tigress said, a little confused.

"You called me Max and said something about clowns stuck in your head and not being eaten by the big kahuna." Monkey recalled.

Suddenly, she realized that she had said those things out loud because those nightmares of Max became so impactful that she's starting to lose the ability to tell dreams from reality and she shook her head to get out of it and said, "Was I that out of it?"

"I'd say you were way out of it." Takami answered.

Tigress lets out a big yawn and Kiba immediately smelled morning breath and said, "Man, your breath stinks worse than mine or Ryo's."

Ryo responded by pounding Kiba in the head and said, "You had to go there, didn't you? My breath does not stink, dude."

"I have to side with Kiba on this one." Skyler responded.

"Enough! All of you except for Tigress head to the training hall. We will train for a half day." Shifu responded.

Immediately, all but Tigress headed out of her room on their way to the training hall and Tigress wanted to go with them, but Shifu could tell that she has completely wigged out all night and Shifu said, "You should get some rest, Tigress."

"But I want to train." Tigress said, with a delirious yawn.

"No, not in this condition. When you're all rested up, you can train. But for now...you need your rest and the dream is over now." Shifu answered.

Tigress was trying to say something, but her strength failed her to stand up as she laid down on the floor, slumped and knocked out and fell asleep. Shifu took one look at her and just hopes that she and Max will make amends soon, but she noticed a stain on her pants and wondered what just happened and then he made a quick realization and said, "Did she just...?"

* * *

Next up...it's Halloween night!


	17. Halloween at the Bushido Akio's House

And here's how the Bushid-Akio family get ready for a Halloween night!

* * *

Chapter 17: Halloween at the Bushido-Akio's House

October 31st, Halloween Night

As sunset falls onto the Valley of Peace, there's an amazing atmosphere around the town where people are setting up their halloween decorations, leaves are blowing in the wind and the sounds of kids laughing as they're in their costumes with their parents getting some candy while others at home are getting into the halloween spirit themselves...but none more so than at the Bushido-Akio house where everyone's making this holiday the most festive.

Samurai, Phoenix, Tsunami and Cody are busy with decorating the outside of the house with spooky decorations, but keeping it completely kid-friendly for trick-or-treaters while the others were working around the inside, picking up knick knacks for Halloween and bring them all around the house to make it feel like it's halloween.

Musaki, Arizona and Mako helped out with a couple of things alongside Mako's family friend Zhago, who often visited the house and afterwards, Musaki wiped his forehead after all that work and said, "Looks like this is gonna be a halloween to remember."

"Yeah, it does." Arizona agreed.

Just then, they hear Luke, Noah and Jacob coming downstairs and all three cubs were wrapped around in sheets like a ghost and Musaki gasped playfully and said, "Are these ghosts I see?"

They came downstairs and one of them stumbled down the steps and into the floor, unveiling the sheet to reveal the two young foxes and the baby wolf cub. Jacob was the first one to stumble and fall and Arizona came over and picked him up and said, "You okay?"

Jacob responded with a soft coo and Arizona chuckled softly and rubbed nose to nose with him, making Jacob giggle in response. Arizona smiled and said, "You silly goon."

Luke and Noah walked towards their adopted father and stood in his side for a little while and Musaki picked them up one-by-one and asked, "You guys ready for Halloween? Are you ready for spooky stuff?"

"Jacob's been excited for this holiday since he saw the pumpkins." Arizona said, with a smile.

"I know. I think Luke's much more excited about it an Noah's kinda skeptical about all the scary stuff." Musaki added.

Zhago walked by the two and said, "I think we're gonna have to show Noah a thing or two about Halloween."

Noah whimpered in response and just hid his face in Musaki's chest and Musaki rubbed Noah's head slightly and he responded, "I think that's his code for 'I'm good'."

Just then, Summer comes downstairs with a very stunning halloween maiden costume that literally took Musaki's breath away as she walks downstairs and comes towards her mate and said, "Oh, I'm such a damsel in distress. Who will help this beautiful maiden in need?"

Musaki chuckled softly as he waltzed over towards Summer and said, "I'll be more than happy to help you, miss."

Summer giggles in response to this and brought out the ceremonial fan to show it off and she said, "You like, Musaki? This will be so much fun for the Halloween party."

"Yeah, it would. Which reminds me...I gotta get changed to my costume." Musaki said, before running up the steps.

"Me too. Hey, Mako...can you look after Jacob for a second?" Arizona said, bringing the wolf cub to Mako.

"Sure thing." Mako replied, holding onto the three cubs.

Several minutes after that, Sierra comes to the stairs alongside Reiko and both of them were literally lit up and Sierra said, "And now...we bring you the costumes of our younger ones. Please help me welcome Duke, Bakari, Isaiah and Maximus!"

Duke comes downstairs with a ghost costume with mounds of holes all over while Bakari comes in with a prince costume with a staff and a cape and Isaiah comes down with a samurai sword with a hat to match it up and finally Max comes downstairs with that scary yet appealing clown costume with vampire/zombie makeup. All of them with halloween bags ready for some candy as well as the Halloween party at the Jade Palace.

"Whoa...you guys look awesome!" Mako said, amazed.

"Thanks!" the younger ones replied.

Samurai, Cody, Tsunami and Phoenix came back inside the house after some work on the decorations and saw the younger kids wearing some killer costumes and that definitely took the older sibs by surprise. Tsunami looked at all the costumes and said, "You guys are most definitely winners if there was ever a Halloween costume contest."

"I think Isaiah and Max are tied up for the win." Samurai added.

"Max takes the cake." Cody stated.

Max was humbled by initial statement Cody made and said, "You guys..."

"No, seriously. This costume could even scare me." Samurai persisted.

"We should really put our costumes on so we can go trick-or-treating with them." Phoenix stated.

All of the older sibs quickly went upstairs to get their costumes in time for the Halloween celebration and that sorta left Zhago confused by that and said, "Aren't these guys old enough to be trick-or-treating?"

"They're actually gonna go to this Halloween party at the Jade Palace tonight. Me and Reiko already got our costumes ready." Mako replied.

"Wow...sounds very festive." Zhago responded.

"Yep. Okami and Xing-Fu Haruki are gonna be here to babysit the littler ones for us while we all go out. I'm not sure how Okami will handle those kids, but I think she'll do fine." Mako stated.

"Amazing." Zhago added.

"What are you doing for Halloween?" asked Mako.

Zhago chuckled softly and very sly-like and said, "Got another date with Ivy. I think me and her are gonna do more treats than tricks."

Mako could tell what that meant when Zhago said that and he blinked his eyes a few times and said, "So...I can only guess that you're gonna, you know?"

"Possibly. You never know." Zhago replied, with a very confident smile.

"Well...just make sure that you know that's what she wants." Mako added.

"I'll do my best." Zhago stated, as he left the house.

After Zhago left, Mako shook his head about what his friend's plans were for Halloween night and said, "Why do I not believe him right now?"

* * *

Next chapter...trick or treating!


	18. Trick or Treating

Before the party, you can't start your Halloween night without trick or treating!

* * *

Chapter 18: Trick or Treating

An hour goes by and mostly everyone is going out for trick or treating around the Valley of Peace getting some candy while parading around in their costumes and in the midst of the crowd, there's Duke, Bakari, Isaiah and Max alongside Blaze coming in the mix with their costumes as Samurai, Phoenix, Tsunami and Cody to supervise in their costumes as well. The younger kids each got their own pieces of candy as they go from house to house and they were enjoying every single bit of it.

As they paraded around the village, most younger kids and pre-teens were paying a little attention to Max's costume and they were just absolutely floored by how it looks and how awesome it looks. Max wasn't aware of the little attention he was getting, but Samurai could tell that this is gonna be a costume competition somehowm but remained silent about this.

While they were walking around, they noticed half of the Hazards doing some trick or treating as well with the younger ones and the first person to spot them coming past them was Kiba. Kiba turns around while wearing this gargoyle costume and sees Max and Samurai and said, "Dudes!"

Samurai stopped for a while and saw Kiba and he was happy to see his buddy come in and Kiba comes towards Samurai and gave out their signature handshake and then he saw Max as both of them did their signature handshake/fist-bump greeting. Kiba looked at the costume Max is wearing and he said, "Now that's a costume."

"Thanks, Kiba." Max said, chuckling.

"Hey, Kiba...you trick or treating?" asked Samurai, noticing Kiba holding a halloween bag.

When Kiba noticed that he's holding that halloween bag that may be full of candy, Kiba blinked his eyes a few times and quickly said, "I'm...actually holding it for Kovu."

"Isn't Kovu a little old to do tirck-or-treating?" asked Samurai, raising an eyebrow.

"So? He's still got a year left." Kiba said, in his defense.

Soon enough, Kovu comes in with Borko and Kalia with their bags of candy and Samurai could see that Kiba's doing some trick-or-treating as well. Kiba lets out an innocent smile and a laugh after finding himself caught halloween candy bag handed. Samurai shook his head in disbelief and said, "Couldn't resist trick-or-treating?"

"No. I just...I like candy, okay? Don't judge." Kiba replied, a little embarrassed.

"Hey, Kiba...you wanna join us?" asked Max.

That rose Kiba's ears a little to hear this coming from Max and that excited him and asked, "Really? You wouldn't mind at all?"

"No. Kovu, Kalia and Borko can come too...unless the others are here." Max added.

"There's Ryo, Skyler and Faith. We're just gonna supervise the kids, pick up Tamaki, Chronos and Zack and be back for the party to begin." Kiba replied.

Soon enough, in comes Skyler, Faith and Ryo walking by to catch up with Kiba and the younger ones and to their surprise, they see Max and the gang there and Faith said, "Hey, guys."

"Hi, Faith." everyone replied.

Faith gets to see Max's costume for the first time and she was giving chills and complete interest and said, "Wow...this is unlike any costume I've ever seen before."

"So, this is what Tigress had a problem with? I actually like this costume. It's so...scary and so cute at the same time." Skyler agreed.

Max smiled at that and blushed over the cute part and said, "Thanks...I think."

"Hey, what about my costume? I look cute in it." Ryo said, showing Skyler his vampire tiger costume.

"It's scary, Ryo...and not in a good way." Skyler answered.

Ryo lowered his ears in disappointment after hearing that because his costume couldn't compete with Max's and Faith said, "There is a costume competition at the Halloween party. This could be epic to see who wins this year."

Kiba chuckled in response as he looks at Max and Ryo and said, "You two have got some stiff competition."

"Hold on, why would I compete against Ryo? We might actually have fun." Max replied.

"I would like to see where this is going." Ryo said, a little interested.

"Hey, guys...lets do some trick-or-treating first. Then, we'll head to the Jade Palace for the party afterwards." Phoenix stated.

"Yeah, we're gonna get our scare on." Blaze said, happily.

Just then, Kalia, Borko and Kovu joined with Max along with half of the other Hazards to finish off trick or treating and they bumped into an unexpected person...Po. They were surprised to see Po giving out candy for the trick-or-treaters for Halloween standing at the Noodle Shop. When Po saw the gang coming by, he was stunned to see Isaiah with that samurai costume and Po said, "Isaiah! You look awesome! Sweet samurai costume!"

"Thanks, Po." Isaiah said, smiling.

"You guys came for some candy?" asked Po.

"Yeah, hopefully you didn't eat any of it." Samurai said.

Po chuckled softly and replied, "Course not. They're for the kids. Besides, why would I eat some candy?"

"Because maybe you must've stuffed some under your costume for later." Ryo replied, pointing that out.

Po seemed surprised that Ryo knew where Po stuffs some of the candy and responded, "Maybe..."

* * *

Didn't know that Kiba's a trick-or-treater, huh? Stay tuned to see what happens next!


	19. Getting Ready to Party

And we see half the crew on the way to the party!

* * *

Chapter 19: Getting Ready to Party

At the Jade Palace

Crane is keeping a close bird's eye view on how many guests are coming by the palace and to his amazing surprise, several of the invited guests showed up that are local to the Valley of Peace and from a further distance, he sees several kung-fu masters and students come by as well and he can tell that this is gonna be one major event in kung-fu history where it's the one day to just be free to go out in costumes. Most of the masters look forward to the event all year and the same goes for the students because they have no training to do that day.

As they make an entrance, Crane swoops down from the sky and landed on the front of the Jade Palace alongside Shifu, Viper, Kaizer and Hope all welcoming them to the party and most of the masters are definitely gonna have their Halloween night much more delightful and entertaining. Knowing that the Jade Palace has done so, they know that it'll be one heck of a festive party.

"Welcome to our Jade Palace Halloween party. We hope you will enjoy this year's amusement." Shifu said, bowing to the masters.

Some of the masters bowed back to them as they agreed that it'll be the most amazing this year as they entered in the palace. At the same time, the residents of the Valley of Peace are also coming in as well, greeting Shifu and the others as they went in. While getting in, Shifu whispered to Viper, "Is Po coming?"

"He is. He'll be here any minute." Viper whispered.

"You know how Po is with parties." Crane whispered, as well.

"Any word from Tigress?" asked Shifu whispered.

"Not from what we know of. We're hoping that she can come over." Hope whispered back.

At the village of Peace

Samurai, Phoenix, Tsunami, Cody, Max, Blaze, Isaiah, Bakari and Duke went alongside Kovu, Kalia, Borko, Ryo, Skyler, Kiba, Faith, Tamaki, Chronos, Zack and Po as they make their way to the Jade Palace in time for the party and Max became super enthusiastic about how this party will go down and Chronos couldn't help but realize that Max is getting a little older now, but he still has the same innocent, youthful appeal he has.

Chronos looked at Max for a second and asked, "So...this is your last year at the Valley of Peace, I hear?"

"Yeah, it is. But I don't want to think about it now. I just want to focus on having fun with the time we have left." Max answered.

"Yeah. Chronos is gonna be heartbroken if you leave next year." Zack added.

Chronos elbowed Zack a little bit and lets out a silent, yet serious growl hinting him to shut up about it and muttered, "Not in front of Max."

"You're the one who broke down crying when you found out that Max was gonna leave next year." Zack whispered.

"Not true. You know I do not cry." Chronos argued.

Ryo could hear Chronos and Zack bicker a little bit and although it's not out loud, he can tell they can't stop whispering and arguing and he rolls his eyes in response to that and said, "My half-brohers..."

"Are they always like this?" asked Phoenix.

"No, not normally. Usually, they'd just disgaree in Chronos' store over almost everything except for weapons." Ryo answered.

That sorta got Max thinking for a while and he looks at Ryo and asked, "What kind of weapons do they have?"

Ryo looked at Max for a second and seemed kinda surprised by that question and replied, "Guns, knives, swords, daggers, staffs, blasters...everything you can think of."

"Do they polish them or carve some new original ones?" asked Max.

"I don't think they carve stuff, but they do polish them to make sure it maintains taken care of." Ryo answered.

"Why would ask, Max?" asked Faith.

Max is kinda unsure to share his future desire with some of them because they're not so sure how they can handle it, but it has been sort of an ambitious goal or dream that he's considering to take when he gets older and replied, "I kinda figured out what I want to do when I grow up. Polish weapons and being woodsmith."

And that literally blew away most of them...including Chronos. Just hearing that from Max made Chronos stop talking and took notice as he said, "You want to do weapons?"

"Yeah. Maybe not use them, but to polish them or do some cleaning in case they get dirty or something." Max answered.

"Dude...we might have to give you a job at the store then." Zack said, with much enthusiasm.

As they all got past the Bushido-Akio house, Chronos looked up for a second and saw Luna wearing a diamond princess costume with a silver crown, looking very beautiful in it and that made Chronos' heart race quickly and he just exhaled deeply and said to himself, "She looks beautifully hot."

"Who, our sister? She's okay." Tsunami responded.

Luna comes over with the rest of the family and catches up with everyone else and said, "I'm so ready for this party."

"And then some. How are ya, Luna?" asked Chronos, with a sly, debonair smile.

Luna chuckles softly and replied, "Good, Chronos."

Zack leans over to Max and whispered, "Chronos has had a crush on Luna for a long time and I think Tamaki is trying to fall for Zoey."

Max sighs and rolls his eyes in amusement and said, "I hope I don't act the same way when I have a girlfriend."

"Come, on everyone...we shouldn't be late." Mako announced.

* * *

Next stop...the party!


	20. Attending the Party

Now the party REALLY begins!

* * *

Chapter 20: Attending the Party

By the time that everyone made their way to the steps of the palace, the Bushido-Akio clan could definitely tell that they've definitely outdone themselves this year and Musaki was deeply amazed that not a lot has changed, considering that this will the the last time he'll participate in this activity, so he's gonna make that moment count. He finds himself being greeted by Shifu and half of the Five as they welcome him and the gang over with their costumes. Shifu looks at Musaki for a while and said, "We've all been waiting for you."

"Well, the wait's over. Let's make this the best Halloween party ever!" Musaki exclaimed.

"Agreed." Shifu added.

Soon afterwards, Shifu sees Mako and Reiko, some of the older siblings, the adopted kids and Blaze, as well as Tamaki, Chronos, Zack, Kiba, Kovu, Kalia, Borko, Ryo, Skyler and Faith. Po walked behind them as well and Shifu followed suit as the gang looks around the whole palace and sees it being tricked out with mound of spooky decor and amazing halloween decorations all over. Everything ancient, strange and scary spikes up their interest level to a T.

Max takes one look and he's an immediate fan of everything that's Halloween and he said, "This is so...cool."

"I'll say." Blaze said, following his tiger buddy.

Just then, they see something coming towards them that freaked them out as they swooped past them and noticed that it was a plastic ghost dangling over and soon, they went from freaked and relief in a second as both of them were laughing. Blaze laughs a little and said, "Dude, did you just see that?"

"Yeah, almost scared the crap out of me." Max replied.

"I almost wet myself." Blaze stated.

Meanwhile, several of the older sibs looked around and saw every single kung-fu master around wearing Halloween costumes and it was just the biggest deal at the palace ever. Samurai chuckled at this as he looked at his kung-fu idol, Master Rhino. Samurai tried to keep it cool, but is still geeking out about the fact that he's in close proximity with one of the most celebrated masters that ever came across China.

"Man...Musaki must've been so lucky to see these masters for this event. I don't know how they bring them here every year." Samurai replied.

"I think I got the answer; while I was in my first few months at the Jade Palace, there's always this huge Halloween party here and Shifu invites the top kung-fu masters and their students to celebrate this event because it's the one day that they can actually come in costume and just be themselves and for one night, forget that they're kung-fu masters." Arizona explained.

"Wow...that's awesome." Samurai said.

"Yep. Every year, there's a huge costume contest to see who comes in with the best costume this year to see which one stands out from among the rest." Arizona added.

Tsunami came in and overheard about this costume contest and said, "Do most first timers come in?"

"Well...either first-timers or those that have won before." Arizona answered.

At the party, Phoenix saw some snacks that may be considered tempting to grab ahold of, but as he's about to set foot on the snack table, he sees one of the kung-fu students coming in with her costume on getting some snacks and Phoenix is immediately drawn into her quickly. The female student perks her ears and turns around to see Phoenix for the first time and almost immediately, she seemed captivated by his costume, including the eye patch. Phoenix looks at the female black leopard and he said, "Hi."

"Hello. Nice costume." the black leopardess replied.

"Thanks. Yours too." Phoenix said, a little shy.

"Thanks. It's...it's a samurai warrior princess costume. Although I look like a freaking maiden in distress." the leopardess said, looking at the costume.

Phoenix laughs at that comment and he said, "Pretty and funny."

"So...is this your first time at this party?" asked the leopardess.

"No. My family and I have been at this party every year for like...5 years now." Phoenix answered.

The leopardess widened her eyes at that length of time Phoenix has been there and she said, "Wow...that's a surprise."

"I know, right?" asked Phoenix.

"You're not by any chance...related to the Dragon Warrior, aren't you?" asked the leopardess.

Phoenix blinked his eyes a few times and he said, "No. We're the same species, but we're not related by blood, if that's what you're asking. It would be awesome though."

The leopardess seemed to be very fond of Phoenix's humble charm and sense of humor and she said, "I'm Amethyst. They call me 'Ami' for short."

"Cool name. I'm Phoenix."

"Wow...that is a really cool name. I've never met anyone named Phoenix before." Ami said, excitedly.

"My dad calls me that name because supposedly when I was born, he said that I had died after being born for like 90 seconds until I started crying and he gave me the name because I rose from the ashes or something like that." Phoenix replied.

That info got Ami completely blown away and said, "Wow...that's something."

"Yeah. My cousins sometimes make fun of the fact that I was born dead, but I just let it roll off my shoulders. No big deal. I'm just lucky that I'm here and I don't take life for granted." Phoenix replied.

Just then, Samurai comes over to Phoenix and said, "Hey, dude. I think they're about to start a costume contest soon. Plus, you seriously have to got to try this spicy Tso chicken."

Samurai looks up and sees Ami right in front of him and didn't know that he was talking to a girl and said, "Oh...excuse me. I didn't mean to interrupt."

"Nah, Sammy. Ami, this is my brother Samurai. Samurai, Ami." Phoenix said, half annoyed and half embarrassed.

"Hello, Samurai. Is he your big brother?" asked Ami.

"Phoenix is my little brother, actually." Samurai answered.

Ami chuckled softly at this and as she was gonna talk some more, one of her trainers called her name to come over and she groans at this and said, "Every time...that's my trainer calling me. I have to get ready for the costume contest. It was nice meeting you both...especially you, Phoenix."

"You too, Ami." Phoenix added.

As Ami walked away, Phoenix glared at Samurai for a while and asked, "Did you have to butt in?"

"Well, I didn't know you were talking with your girlfriend." Samurai replied, teasing Phoenix.

"We just met. That doesn't make her my girlfriend." Phoenix responded.

Meanwhile, Ami walks towards her trainer and follows her while looking back and sees Phoenix walking out and she felt somewhat tickled by Phoenix. Her trainer notices this and she asked, "I noticed you were talking to that guy. Is he cute?"

"He is. But...I'm not sure if I'm his type." Ami replied.

"You say that about every guy you talk to that turn out total duds. All guys aren't as different as the other ones." her trainer implied.

"Well...I don't know about that. But I have a feeling about this one though." Ami responded.

* * *

Sounds like Phoenix got a crush! Costume competition is next!


	21. Costume Contest

And here's this year's costume contest!

* * *

Chapter 21: Costume Contest

Almost immediately, everyone gathered around to participate in this costume contest to show who's best in show this year and which costume stands out from among the rest. Po walks by with his best samurai costume to kick off the contest and said, "Hello, everyone! Welcome to the super-awesome costume contest here! The best thing about Halloween is that it's the one day of the year where you can dress as whoever you want and no one can tell you what you shouldn't look like. In this one, we get to showcase who's awesomer in every costume you show up in. So...for everyone that wants to show it off, go for it! Our amazing judges will look at the costume to see who stands out from everyone and they choose who thinks should win. Are you all ready?!"

Everyone started cheering for this occasion and they can't wait to show it off to everyone and Po said, "Awesome! And no matter who wins, we're all winners because we can wear whatever costume we want!"

Not long after, several of the kung-fu masters showed off their costumes while doing some kung-fu poses. Most of the costumes range from samurai's, scary vampires, zombies, monsterous beasts, mummies, pumpkins, fairies, kings and queens, their favorite members of the Furious Five, the Dragon Warrior, dragons and everything in between.

Everyone became awestruck by the costumes the masters wore and then it came time for the students to show it off. The young 19-year old leopardess Ami went out to show off her amazing costume and did some incredible kung-fu moves and just showed off her fun side as she posed. That alone captured Phoenix's attention very quickly and he just became captivated by her amazing moves and fierce confidence as well as her beautiful looks. He just became floored with everything she's got and he said, "I think I'm in love."

"Slow down, bro. She's too good for you." Tsunami added.

"So you say." Phoenix responded.

After Ami showed off her costume, the rest of the students followed suit and gave it all they got while having some fun along the way, just being fun and silly for once while also showing some moves as well. Everyone applauded and cheered for these young kids who go all out and for once, let them be themselves for a day. All of their trainers were completely awestruck by their students' performance and just applauded for them.

Po comes out and he said, "These are the future kung-fu masters of tomorrow and let's hope that they can have fun while doing it too. All righty, then. We're gonna freestyle it as we see almost everyone in the Valley of Peace coming in with their costumes. Let's bring them out!"

Almost everyone from the Valley of Peace showed off their costumes and each of them showcased their individuality in many ways from their costumes and their personalities. Most of the costumes glowed in the dark while some have wings, plastic fangs, claws and everything else in between ranging from the old and young. The judges looked at those costumes and they seem to see which ones stand out the most.

Next thing, the Bushido-Akio clan comes over to show off their costumes as Mako and Reiko came in as married mummies, Cody as a rotten pumpkin, Tsunami as a pirate, Samurai as a huge dragon and Phoenix came out as a huge king. Ami looks at Phoenix's costume and that attracted her even more and showcasing his goofy side made Ami very interested in him. Some of her friends could tell that this guy is definitely setting sights on her and one of them said, "He's cute for a panda."

"Isn't he?" asked Ami.

Next up, several of the youngest Bushido-Akio kids came in to show off their costumes and do some moves and after that, the Elemental Hazards came in with their costumes. Takami and Tamaki came in as guard prisoners, Skyler as a vampire, Kiba as a pirate, Faith as Master Tigress, Layla as a werewolf, Kalia, Borko and Kovu as babies, Hope as the Dragon Warrior, Kaizer as a black ninja, Chronos and Zack as clowns. They all took the stage with mounds of grace and afterwards, Ryo came in as a black warrior twirling his swords around like he's a born ninja.

Most of those outfits impressed the judges the most, but they were definitely not prepared for what's coming up next. Max takes the stage with his most daring and amazing outfit to date; a scary, creepy clown costume with killer zombie/vampire makeup wearing a black cape with a clown costume added with the clown makeup and that captivated the crowd.

Even four of the Five were stunned to see the costume in full display as Max walked across the palace, making his most scariest poses and faces he could ever come up with. The judges were totally captivated by this and it was clear that this is not an ordinary clown costume. Kiba cheered and howled for Max in his most enthusiastic way possible as he exclaimed, "You're killing it, man!"

Unaware that Tigress has emerged to take in the festivities, Max is completely overwhelmed but awestruck by the crowd cheering for him and he did not expect a huge reaction from that costume he wore and just remained very humble about it. As Tigress looks around, she sees a silhouette of that clown costume moving and she felt like that nightmare is coming back around and then, the silhouette grew bigger as she sees Max walking by. Max spots Tigress for a quick second and waves at her, but Tigress reluctantly waved back at him, worried about what he'll do next.

Max was greeted by mounds of high-fives and fist bumps from his friends from the MMA class, cheering him on as he left the stage and Max said, "That was awesome."

"You did awesome, bro." Samurai added.

Phoenix gave Max a big high-five as for that amazing costume and how he got the crowd on their feet and it just solidified Max's amazing growth as he took it all in.

Just then, Ami comes over and sees Phoenix high-fiving Max some more and she asked, "Hey, is that your brother?"

"Yeah, that's my brother." Phoenix replied, seemingly proud of Max.

Ami goes towards Max and kneels down to his level and said, "Hi, there. I'm Ami. Your costume is the bets costume I've ever seen."

"Thank you." Max replied.

Just then, a couple of girls his age were saying 'hi' to him and complimenting on his costume and it initially shocked some of his brothers that Max has gotten almost every girls' attention and it even took Kiba, Ryo and Chronos by surprise that Max is gaining loads of attention. Kiba and Samurai were both shocked, but completely rooting for Max in their own ways.

"Future babe magnet." Kiba said, wagging his tail.

"All right, Maxie!" Samurai cheered.

* * *

Max won the costume contest and got the girls! Final chapter coming!


	22. A Halloween to Remember

The final chapter is up! Here's how we wrap things up!

* * *

Chapter 22: A Halloween to Remember

A couple of minutes later, Po calls in several of the participants to come to the stage selected by the judges' choice and one of those participants was Max, walking alongside Ryo, Kiba and a few kung-fu students taking the stage, waiting for the results. As Max was standing there, he shows a little bit of confidence and humility and he knows that he's in it for the fun because he loves Halloween. Some of the kung-fu students look at Max's costume and in their eyes, it's one of the most amazing costumes they've ever seen and surprised that he amassed expectations.

Ami and several of the kung-fu students seem very well-aware that Max might win the whole thing because his costume just captivated everyone's attention, but regardless of who shows off the best costume, they're in it for fun. Although...one of the students is very cocky that he'll win the whole thing instead of Max because he showed off his halloween costume the best, but it all comes down to who the judges think will win this.

Po walks over to the stage and he brought out the envelopes that determines who wins it and he said, "In fifth place...Macai-Zin."

The reaction from Macai-Zin, one of the students, seems very surprised and a little bit floored that he's in fifth place and he's not taking that very well and said, "Excuse me?! I'm fifth place?! That's considered losing!"

Macai-Zin was being looked at by one of his trainers, giving him a glare that reads 'maintain yourself' and Macai stayed silent, but he's still upset over this. Po continues giving out the results and said, "At fourth place, Ryo Mercer."

Ryo didn't expect to get into fourth place, but he didn't seem too uptight about it because at the end of the day, he's just cool with whatever comes at him and Kiba looks at him and said, "Wow...fourth place. Bet it must be hard."

"Not really. I don't really care that much about winning." Ryo replied.

Po opened up the envelope and read, "In third place for the most radical costume this Halloween, Kiba Toshida."

Once Kiba heard he's third place, that sent him over the moon with a joyful howl and said, "Yes! I'm third place! This is the coolest Halloween ever!"

Kiba did his own nerdy victory dance and Ryo rolled his eyes in response to this and said, "Stop before you embarrass yourself."

"Dude, my tail's wagging so fast, I don't even care." Kiba said, joyfully.

Kiba eventually got back in line, but his tail is still wagging from all the excitement over who's gonna win the whole thing and Po keeps going and he said, "In second place, Ame...Amo...Amerth..."

"Ami." Shifu whispered.

"Ami!" Po exclaimed.

Everyone clapped and cheered for Ami as he presented herself and gave a humble bow for the audience and Phoenix cheered for her as well and she looked at Max and smiled at him, wishing him luck.

Finally, the wait is over on who's gonna take hold of the winner of this year's costume contest and Po puts in the envelope and said, "The winner of this years Halloween costume contest is made by unamious decision that the judges put in based on creativity, standing out and just being all around fun on Halloween. They said that this costume made this the most easiest decision they made. The winner is...Maximus!"

The crowd burst in cheering mode and Max seemed very surprised that he won and Max comes across the stage and Po gives him the skeleton crown that showcases top costume for this year. The kung-fu students seem happy for him, but Macai-Zin seemed very fired up with the fact that a simple 11-year old cub took home the grand prize and wishes that could've been him.

"Congratulations, Max. Wanna say a few words?" asked Po.

Max was still surprised by this inital win and he said, "I didn't expect this to happen. I knew that my costume would become something that's totally different, but I didn't expect everyone else to like it that much. I would just like the thank everyone here; my family, my awesome friends...but mostly, I just want to thank Master Tigress. She's actually the reason why I wore this costume so that I can be different and just remain true to myself."

When Tigress heard that, she didn't expect Max to include him in her thanks and the guilt still sets in for her and Max said, "And no matter what, we're still friends and by the way, apology accepted."

Even when Tigress still felt hard on herself, Max is still willing to be friends with her and she walks over to the stage and Max looks at her with a smile. Soon afterwards, Po said, "Congrats to our participants! Now let's just have fun!"

Soon after, Max walks off the stage and finds himself with Tigress coming in and she walks towards him and said, "Why would you still forgive me after all the things I said to you?"

"Because I can. I hold zero grudges." Max answered.

"That nightmare I had last night...I guess it must've made an impact on me and that I should be careful with my words towards you." Tigress stated.

"We're still cool, Tigress." Max stated.

The reconciliation quickly became apparent that both tigers will still be friends until the end of time and Tigress smiled at this and shook his hand and said, "You're a remarkable person."

"Thanks. So are you." Max responded.

They reached out for a hug and Max hugged Tigress tightly...and as they hugged, Max closed his eyes and broke the fourth wall by having his eyes glow a creepy green, winking at the audience whispering "Happy Halloween!"

* * *

Now that was an awesome ending! Much thanks to SpiritualLoneWolfXIII for letting me use his characters there! Have an awesome post-Halloween! AniUniverse out!


End file.
